Remembering and honoring those who served our country

Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May to honor those who died while serving in the U.S. military. After the Civil War, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, the head of a Union veteran organization established Decoration Day on May 30th as a time for people to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.



By the late 1860s, many different localities around the country were holding their own springtime tributes and decorating the graves of fallen soldiers. The first large observance of Decoration Day was held in 1868 at the Arlington National Cemetery.



Decoration Day continued to be observed on the local level, and in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May. The change went into effect in 1971.



“On Memorial Day, the country pays respect to more than 1.1 million American military personnel who made the supreme sacrifice for their country while serving in uniform, as well as to Gold Star Families, whose family members died in uniform,” said Councilor Flynn.



Boston has a number of events on Memorial Day, one of the most prominent being the annual flag garden in the Boston Common, where tens of thousands of American flags are placed to commemorate fallen soldiers dating back to the Revolutionary War. Due to COVID-19, this year’s event will be held virtually. The City of Boston’s Veterans Services and veteran organizations are still safely placing flags at military cemeteries.