[00:39.42]That music is called "Taps."

[00:54.65]It is played at military fuerals to honor soldiers who have died.

[01:00.21]The sound of taps is eing heard at cemeteries throughout the United States as America honors its war dead.

[01:09.77]The Memorial Day holiday started in 1868.

[01:15.42]The purpose was to honor soldiers killed during the Civil War between America's northern and southern states.

[01:24.64]Back then, the holiday was called Decoration Day.

[01:29.97]People used flowers and ribbons to decorate the burial places of those killed during the war.

[01:37.96]Today, Memorial Day honors the men and women who died in all of America's wars.

[01:45.93]The first yearly observance of Memorial Day was at the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

[01:54.86]The cemetery is across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

[02:00.87]It is the largest and most famous national burial place in the United States.

[02:07.74]It includes about 200 hectares of rolling hills.

[02:13.43]Up and down the hills are lines of simple, white stones marking the graves where the soldiers are buried.

[02:23.05]About 200,000 soldiers are buried there.

[02:27.54]They include military and political leaders, cabinet officers, and Supreme Court judges.

[02:36.06]Only two American presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

[02:42.95]One is William Howard Taft. He was president in the early 1900s.

[02:50.06]The other is John Kennedy. He was president in the early 1960s.

[02:57.01]He was murdered during his first term in office.

[03:01.11]A fire burns all the time over President Kennedy's burial place.

[03:07.06]More people have visited his grave than any other in the United States.

[03:13.02]Memorial Day ceremonies also are being held at the vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

[03:30.47]The ceremonies honor Americans killed in fighting in Vietnam.

[03:36.11]The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of Jan Scruggs.

[03:42.07]Mister Scruggs fought in Vietnam. After the war, he was deeply troubled.

[03:49.69]He and others felt that American soldiers killed in Vietnam had been forgotten.

[03:56.46]So, he organized efforts to build a monument to honor them.

[04:02.02]He wanted to put on the monument the name of every American who died or was missing in the Vietnam War.

[04:11.01]In 1980, a group of former soldiers announced a national competition.

[04:18.77]The veterans"group invited American artists to create a memorial to helpunite the nation after the Vietnam War had divided it.

[04:30.03]Eight famous designers and artists were the judges.

[04:34.73]They judged more than 1,400 designs.

[04:39.43]They chose the design of Maya Lin.

[04:43.77]Ms Lin was twenty-one years old.

[04:47.03]She was studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven Connecticut.