Memorials are landmarks, occasions, celebration, or even
institutions and organization put up to pay tribute to important
events or personalities. These memorials can be found in every
culture and in every generation.
Man has always been a sentimental lot. Every culture places
great importance on the memorable events and personalities that
grace their history. However, man is also a forgetful lot. This
leads him to erect monuments and feast days to make sure that
these important memories do not fade into obscurity.
In the early days, memorials would take the simple form of a
pile of rocks that symbolized some important event. Often, these
landmarks would also mark the grave of a loved one.
As man settled down in cities, the monuments he built as
memorials grew in size and complexity. The ancient Egyptians,
for example, built the Pyramids as a memorial to its departed
kings, who were regarded as gods.
Around 90 of these pyramids were built to house the remains of
the various pharaohs and statesmen that lived in Egypt. Pyramids
usually towered 50 stories height and were made from around 2.5
million block, each weighing about 2.5 metric tons. If ever
there was a memorial that was truly enormous in magnitude and
significance, this was it.
The Hebrews were also known for elaborate feast days to
commemorate many different occasions such as victory in war, and
important historical events.
The Mayan culture depicted its kings in battle on stone
monuments called stelae. As with most cultures, the glories and
miseries of battle are a favorite theme for memorials.
The Romans were more deliberate (and political ) in their
establishment of monuments. The Empire's senate would usually
commission artisans, craftsmen, and masons to periodically build
monuments sometimes out of sheer whimsy and out of the rich
coffers of the State.
The Taj Mahal in India is one of the most beautiful examples of
a memorial in existence. The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal
emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal.
Construction of the edifice started a year after Mumtaz' death,
which was in 1631. It took, in all, 21 year for the Taj Mahal
and its surrounding gardens to be completed.
Today numerous memorials, like the Lincoln Memorial which houses
a huge sitting statue of Abraham Lincoln, dot the American
Landscape. And only fitting so, since America is a land rich
with historical significance.
In many countries there exist monuments to the fallen brave
during war. This is quite a departure from the ancient monuments
that showed victorious kings trumping through battle.
Today's society is more sympathetic to the sacrifices of the
gallant soldiers who offered their lives in battle for their
motherland.
But not all memorials take tangible form. In most cultures,
there exist yearly memorial dates and feasts. Dates such as
Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, Labor Day, Independence Day
populate the country's calendar year after year.
There are also memorial dates that come once in a decade or a
century. An example of such is the 50th anniversary of the
bombing of Pear Harbor.
Memorials are a part of history and self-determination. As said
once, those who do not pay attention to history are doomed to
repeat it. These memorials are a testament to the human
experience and are a sentimental proof to its value of history
and culture.
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