US Embassy to close Monday

The US Embassy will be closed on Monday, May 29, in observance of the US Memorial Day holiday commemorating all men and women who have died in military service for the United States.

Embassy operations and all services will resume on Tuesday, May 30. Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.