Memorial Day..Till Valhalla

Or ,”go dtí dTech/Teach Duinn” to underline my own worldview. No, respectively I’m not trying to appropriate the Heathens, “Till Valhalla” happens to be a fairly modern common phrase used by the United States Marine Corps upon the death, anniversary , or memorial commemorating our fallen comrades. Just like the legends surrounding the cultures of the Norse and Germanic peoples, the USMC adopts similar allegoric motifs in our warrior ethos, and this particular saying was likely adopted in or around 2010 after it was popularised by a YouTube video of the Norwegian Telemark Batallion shouting it as  their war cry during operations in Afghanistan.

 

Before Memorial Day became about a three-day weekend and BBQs, it was birthed from the decoration of soldiers’ graves with flowers. There really isn’t much of a counterpart here in Ireland to the States’ Memorial Day. The closest probably being Remembrance Day which correlates with the WWI fallen, however its observation with traditions such as wearing the poppy are controversial to some, especially here in the north. Regardless of politics almost 50,000 Irishmen, with over 3,500 in the Somme alone, fell in An Chéad Chogadh Domhand, The Great War. Other than that, the Irish Revolution Period that won the Republic’s independence (also controversial in the north) is celebrated by commemorating those that gave their lives in the insurrection of the Éirí amach na Cásca, Easter Risings. Being absent of the recognition I’ve come to know of my native Memorial Day, it has reflected in the practises of my religious life in mundane ritual.

 

Heroes were praised, sacrificial weapons deposited into sacred waters, feasts and fights were had, and libations made. The myths, legends, and artefacts reveal these aspects of our ancestors’ warrior caste. While many like to claim that ‘warrior path’ label, the lifestyle can be truly forlorn. As a veteran of that occupation, being a professional warrior has permanent casualties. The mental residue of war and operating in constant violent scenarios leaves alienating scars, with the most severe loss being actual life. The wounds sustained when one is extracted from the closest fraternity you know is like none other. Though we have specific holidays and festivals, Samhain for example,  reserved for honouring our dead with rituals related to that, Memorial Day has come to be important to me.

 

As we poured our beers onto the earth in those enlisted days, the praises will still be given. When one of our own is extracted from the summer lands of Donn’s rock, across the waters into the dark one’s house, deeds will be done on their behalf, their memories kept alive with a life lived for them. Go dtí Teach Duinn, the libations continue. Till Valhalla.