Bethel Memorial Day Parade Steps Off This Sunday, May 21

BETHEL, CT — The annual Bethel Memorial Day parade steps off this Sunday, May 21, one week before the holiday is celebrated nationally.

The Bethel Patriotic Association in conjunction with the American Legion Post 100 will be hosting the annual parade and ceremony. Festivities will begin at noon and the parade will step off at 2:00 p.m. Beginning at approximately 1:30 p.m., Greenwood Ave., PT Barnum Square, and School Street will be closed to traffic in preparation for the parade.

Police advise residents to expect heavy delays in the area and seek alternate routes. Additionally, there will be no parking along the parade route in order to allow room for parade participants and spectators.

The parade is part of a nearly 160-year tradition that pays tribute to military personnel who lost their lives in service to their country.

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

Memorial Day Weekend is also the unofficial kickoff to summer in Bethel. This year, the Bethel Blooms Craft Fair will take place on the front lawn of the Municipal Center, 1 School Street, on Saturday, May 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The National Memorial Day Parade returns to Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., on Monday, May 29, starting at 2 p.m. Hosted by the American Veterans Center, the parade will be broadcast live, followed by a televised program Our Sacred Honor: An American Salute, airing on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW stations nationwide.

The night before, the National Memorial Day Concert will be broadcast starting at 8 p.m. It will be livestreamed on PBS. The 2022 event was broadcast live from the West Front of the United States Capitol.

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.