From darkness to light

Memorial day and Independence day in Israel are celebrated within mere hours of each other. This is something I find very appropriate, but also very strange. For the week leading up to Independence day, Jerusalem gets ready to pull out all the stops: flags of many sizes hang EVERYWHERE and preparations for concerts and parades are made. Then, all of a sudden, the day before Independence day, all the celebratory preparations stop and the festive mood drops. It's memorial day for fallen IDF soldiers and terror victims. I feel that here in Israel, Memorial Day is felt and acknowledged so much more than in the U.S. Solemn music is played on the radio all day and a country wide siren is sounded.
This year, my husband and myself were getting ready to take the dog out for a walk when the siren was sounded. I sat on the edge of our bed to listen. "Stand", said my husband. I realized he was right. The fallen soldiers deserve proper respect. We just stood there listening to the siren, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Rarely does someone not have a relative or friend who was killed in the line of duty or in a terror attack. This was sorely evident when I was in ulpan (Hebrew language )classes last year. It seemed like all the teachers were going to ceremonies on Mount Hertzel to visit graves of relatives and siblings killed in the IDF, many who died before the age of 21. One teacher showed a video of her son who was killed in 2002. We saw some of his wedding day, heard from his friends and from his young, widowed bride. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when the video was done. The most eerie part of all this was when we heard that his wife had given birth to a baby boy 5 years to the day on which her husband was killed.
At work this year, the CEO of the company lit a memorial candle which I thought very appropriate. Memorial Day here actually means something to people. It isn't just a paid day off and a BBQ like it is in the states for many people. I wonder how many people in the U.S. remember what memorial day is all about. They should take a lesson from Israel.
As soon as sunset hits, the mourning ends and the celebrations begin. I know the reason for celebrations beginning the night Memorial Day ends, is because according to the Jewish calendar, the day begins when the sun sets, but I still find it very weird that the country goes from being very solemn, to holding huge celebrations so quickly. On the other hand, it does show that while Israel has lost so many, so young, the country has and will continue to persevere!
Here is a link to the siren on a Memorial Day 2007 ceremony put on by school children who have lost far too many loved ones in the IDF.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsw_2KraEog