President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has by Proclamation, declared Wednesday, March 9, 2016 as “Decoration Day” and is to be observed throughout the Republic of Liberia as a National Holiday.

According to a Foreign Ministry release, the President’s Proclamation is in consonance with an Act of the National Legislature approved on October 24, 1916 which declared the Second Wednesday of March in each year to be known as “Decoration Day” and to be observed as a National Holiday.

The Proclamation adds that it is befitting that a day be set aside to celebrate the memory of those blessed dead, who have lived and died in the interest of the Liberian Nation, thereby keeping ever alive their deeds and invaluable contributions made to society and the State for onward march to progress.

The Liberian President, in the Proclamation, calls on citizens and foreign residents to remember and cherish the love and affection, the joy and constant caring which existed between family members and friends who once lived so dearly with them before their death.