Memorial Day Weekend 2024: Events, Parades Around Brick

BRICK, NJ — Brick Township will hold its annual Memorial Day parade and service on Monday, May 27, part of a nearly 160-year tradition that pays tribute to military personnel who lost their lives in service to their country.

The parade on Chambers Bridge Road is the highlight of the three-day Memorial Day Weekend — May 25-27 this year.

The parade, which begins at 10 a.m., concludes with a service at the municipal building to honor our military dead. Chambers Bridge Road is closed in both directions during the parade.

There also is the 90th annual Memorial Day Parade in Toms River, which finishes with a ceremony at Toms River's town hall on Washington Street. That event begins at 9:30 a.m.

As the observance has changed over the years, many families also use Memorial Day as an occasion to visit cemeteries in and around Brick 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 Brick.

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.