Memorial Day 2023: Wilmington Hosting Memorial Day Events

WILMINGTON, MA — The upcoming Memorial Day events in Wilmington are part of a nearly 160-year tradition that pays tribute to military personnel who lost their lives in service to their country.

Here are the scheduled events for Memorial Day Weekend in Wilmington:

• 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on May 27: Decoration of Veterans' Graves at Wildwood Cemetery
• 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 27: Decoration of All Squares and Memorials
• 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on May 28: Rededication of Parks, Squares, and Monuments
• 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. on May 29: Parade Staging
• 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on May 29: Memorial Day Parade, which begins at the Market Basket parking lot on Main Street.
• 11 a.m. to 12:30 pm.: Memorial Day Ceremony at Wildwood Cemetery

Below are some other events and parades nearby:

• On Memorial Day, May 29, in Tewksbury, a ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. at Tewksbury Cemetery. It will be followed by a Memorial Day Parade at 11 a.m.

• In Boston, the Memorial Day Flag Garden will be on display from May 25-29 at the Soldiers & Sailors Monument on Boston Common. Each of the more than 37,000 flags represents a Massachusetts service member who gave his or her life defending the nation since the Revolutionary War.

As the observance has changed over the years, many families also use Memorial Day as an occasion to visit local cemeteries and leave flowers at the graves of family members, regardless of whether they served in the military.

The history of Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, dates back to 1868, when Gen. John A. Logan called for a day of remembrance to honor the Northern lives lost amid battle during the Civil War that had ended just a few years earlier, according to History.com. As time passed, more and more people called it Memorial Day, and it became a federal holiday in 1971.

Waterloo, New York, is considered the birthplace of Memorial Day. The town’s observance on May 5, 1866, predated Logan’s call for a day of remembrance. Local businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers and flags.

Until World War I, the holiday honored only those soldiers who died while fighting for the Union in the War, as Southern states honored their war dead on a separate day. After the 116,000-plus American deaths in World War I, the tradition changed to remember all who have died while serving in the military.

Every year, a national moment of remembrance is held at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day. No matter where they are or what they’re doing, Americans are asked to pause for one minute in silence to remember military personnel who have given their lives in service to their country. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the midday time was chosen because it’s a time when many Americans will be enjoying their freedoms on a national holiday.