ABSTRACT

Holiday celebrations during the Civil War were smaller and more restrained than today. Easter was not a major American holiday until the early twentieth century and was mostly celebrated during the Civil War by attending a church service. Halloween grew in popularity in the United States with the arrival of the Irish immigrants following the potato famine (1845–1852) but was still primarily viewed as a Catholic holiday during the Civil War. As well, there were no military remembrances in the 1860s, since Memorial Day was created to remember the Civil War dead in 1868 and Veteran’s Day was created following World War I.