Decoration Day

 

Today I decorated the graves of my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparent.  Many of my relatives are buried at Many Forks Baptist Church Cemetery in the Gum Log section of Towns County, Georgia.

Many Forks Baptist Church holds Decoration Day on the fourth Sunday of May.  Many churches don't hold these occasions anymore.  This is an old-time tradition in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

My family attended the decoration when I grew up in the mountains.  Some people gathered on Saturday before the Sunday event to decorate the graves of loved ones.  On Sunday morning worship service was held in the country church.  After peaching, they held dinner-on-the-grounds.  Back in the 1960's-1970's, they built tables under the shade trees for the lunch.  The mountain women brought boxes of food to spread on the linen-covered tables.  It was indeed a feast.  The women fixed their favorite recipes for the decoration.

You can see in the photo that the women brought a wonderful selection of homemade desserts.  Pies, banana pudding, blackberry cobblers, black walnut cakes, pound cakes, coconut cakes, and many other mouth-watering desserts graced the tables.

After the "feast" folks gathered again in the church for an afternoon of groups singing old-times gospel songs such as "I'll Fly Away, Oh Glory, I'll Fly Away in the morning..."

It was a bittersweet gathering each year.  You honored and recalled your ancestors, had fellowship with kinfolks you hadn't seen for a  long time, and worshipped in the little country church.  The Many Forks Baptist Church cemetery was beautiful with the flowers and American flags decorated the resting places of loved ones.

Many Forks Baptist Church Cemetery beautifully adorned with flowers on Decoration Day.

One of the groups that performed Gospel music on Decoration Day at Many Forks Church.