Memorial Day is a special time as we pay tribute to our dead.

Placing flowers on graves is one traditional way to honor our dead, and it is a nice gesture. Doing so might comfort us or even make us feel closer to our loved ones who have passed death's portals. There is something about a well-maintained cemetery with flowers on the graves that communicates reverence, respect and love.

The tradition of placing flowers on graves dates back at least to the days of the American Civil War when, on an April day in 1863, a group of southern women went to a cemetery near Columbus, Miss., and placed spring flowers on the graves of soldiers who died in the battle at Shiloh.

On April 25, 1866, a year after the war ended, a formal memorial ceremony was held in the graveyard. (Source: Associated Press, May 28, 1961.)

In another place earlier that month, the practice of placing flowers on soldiers' graves was noted when, on April 13, three Civil War veterans saw a young woman and two small children approach a cemetery near Carbondale, Ill., place a bouquet of wild flowers on an unmarked grave and kneel in prayer. As the story goes, her action gave the soldiers an idea. They collected wildflowers from fields around the church and placed them on all the soldiers' graves.

Then they decided that every veteran's grave in town ought to be so marked. They arranged for a parade of veterans, an invocation, a marshal of the day and a principal speaker. They called the event Decoration Day and set the date for April 29 that same year. Gen. John A. Logan, a Carbondale native who quit Congress to join the Union Army and after the war became commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order in 1868 designating May 30 of that year and every year following as a memorial day to the fallen soldiers. (Sources: United Press reports, May 30, 1962, and May 26, 1975.)

Today, the practice of placing flowers on graves is not limited to the war dead, but Memorial Day has become a time to honor all our dead.

Memorial Day, now observed the last Monday in May, is regarded by some as "the most sacred national holiday in the United States." As with many other holidays, its reason for being is sometimes overwhelmed by a rash of other activities. For example, some stores conduct Memorial Day sales, many employers give employees the day off, and many families go on picnics or outings. Memorial Day is viewed by many as the beginning of summer activities.

Still, many families and individuals take the time to place flowers or flags on the graves of their loved ones. But there are other memorials we can offer our dead. For one, we can live so that we bring honor to them. Through our honesty, integrity and devotion to righteous principles we become living memorials.

We can do even more. We can bring them the saving ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can do family history research and see to it that the temple ordinances are performed for our ancestors. We can heed "the spirit of Elijah."

The Prophet Joseph Smith said: "Elijah was the last prophet that held the keys of the Priesthood, and who will, before the last dispensation, restore the authority and deliver the keys of the Priesthood, in order that all the ordinances may be attended to in righteousness. . . . 'And I will send Elijah the Prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord.' . . . Why send Elijah? Because he holds the . . . Priesthood; and without the authority is given, the ordinances could not be administered in righteousness." (History of the Church 4:211.)

Elijah did come, appearing to the Prophet Joseph and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple April 3, 1836, and committing the keys of his dispensation as promised by Malachi. (See Doctrine and Covenants 110.)

Through Malachi came the promise that Elijah "shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. . . ." (Malachi 4:6.) That promise has been fulfilled. Since 1836, great things have been done to help people learn about their family histories. Books and papers have been published containing precious genealogical information, genealogical societies have been established, and technology has been discovered and developed to expedite research and the processing of names for the performance of temple ordinances.

Memorial Day ought to have great meaning to Latter-day Saints, especially when our hearts really are turned to those who have gone before us.