Is it appropriate to say "Happy Memorial Day"?

While some consider pairing the word happy with Memorial Day to be inappropriate, others see it as a perfectly acceptable greeting. Despite joy being at the root of the word happy, Thesaurus.com noted that using the word happy could also be a way for a person to express gratitude. That gratitude could be for the freedom that America enjoys and that people have been willing to sacrifice their own lives to preserve those freedoms, as some have argued. Ken Harbaugh wrote in an op-ed for the Observer in 2015 that Memorial Day has "special significance" for him because he served as a Navy pilot and is the son, grandson and brother of combat veterans. He acknowledged that the day has lost its significance for many people and that it could use a "bit more reverence." However, he had no issue with the phrase "Happy Memorial Day," because he doesn't think the day should be about "unrelenting grief."