Memorial Day Weekend 2023: Events Around Milwaukee County

MILWAUKEE, WI — The several upcoming services and tributes planned around Milwaukee for Memorial Day will all be part of a nearly 160-year tradition honoring military personnel who lost their lives in services to our country.

One highlight of the day comes from the War Memorial Center at Milwaukee's Lakefront. The center plans on placing 15,015 flags, representative of the Wisconsinites killed since the first world war, at Veterans Park between Monday and Friday ahead of Memorial Day to honor the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. People can register to participate in the "Field of Flags" event on the War Memorial's website.

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

Milwaukee's Forest Home Cemetary has invited people to volunteer ahead of Memorial Day to place flags on veterans' graves. You can register to participate at the cemetery's website.

On the day of the holiday, Forest Home Cemetary will host a family-friendly event with a memorial service in its chapel followed by a wreath-laying with stories from the cemetary and customed historical re-enactors.

Memorial Day Weekend is also the unofficial kickoff to summer in much of Wisconsin with notable events expected to kick off.

Here are some things scheduled around greater Milwaukee to mark Memorial Day 2023:

• Greendale's annual moment of silence and walk to remember the fallen takes place on Memorial Day with the meeting point behind Joey Gerard's at 8:30 a.m. The walk will quietly go down Broad Street and join American Legion and Greendale VFW for a patriotic program at Greendale High School.
• In Greenfield, Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of Konkel Park's annual Dan Jansen Family Festival. The festival opens May 26 and lasts into May 28.

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.