How Your Favorite Stars Are Honoring Memorial Day 2021

Memorial Day typically marks the start of the summer season, but it is also a solemn federal holiday. It is observed on the last Monday of May every year to remember the service members who lost their lives in military service. Like millions of Americans, dozens of celebrities took a moment on Monday to honor the holiday and service members.

The holiday has its roots in the days before the Civil War ended. On May 1, 1865, formerly enslaved African Americans honored the Black soldiers killed in the Civil War in Charleston, South Carolina. The soldiers were buried in a mass grave, but the former slaves unearthed the bodies to give them real burials. The first national commemoration of Memorial Day came three years later, with a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary on May 30, 1868. Before then, cities and towns marked their own Memorial Days or "Decoration Days," notes History.com.

By 1890, every Northern state had a "Decoration Day" or Memorial Day to honor soldiers who died in military service. After the World Wars, the holiday was used to honor the dead from all wars. In 1967, Memorial Day was declared a federal holiday. The following year, Congress made it one of the four federal holidays to always fall on a Monday. This took effect in 1971, so the holiday has been on the final Monday of May ever since. Scroll on for a look at how celebrities spent their holiday.