Memorial Day Weekend 2024: Events, Parades Around Bensalem

BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —Township residents will have a selection of nearby hold holiday celebrations to attend with Memorial Day parades and services over the three-day holiday weekend.

The upcoming Memorial Day service/parades in the Bensalem Township area is part of a nearly 160-year tradition that pays tribute to military personnel who lost their lives in service to their country.

Below are some other events and parades nearby: list any events happening in nearby towns that make sense

As the observance has changed over the years, many families also use Memorial Day as an occasion to visit Yardley area 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 the Bensalem Township area.

Below are more ways to spend the weekend:

• The Joseph A. Schumacher VFW Post 1597 in Croydon will host its Memorial Day Parade starting at 11:30 a.m. Monday. The lineup will begin at Cedar Avenue and State Road, and the parade proceeds along State Road to Croydon VFW Post 1597 on Bellevue Avenue, and will be followed by a memorial ceremony.
• The 104th Memorial Day Parade in Langhorne will take place May 29, beginning with ceremonies on the lawn of the Jesse W. Soby American Legion Post 148, 115 W. Richardson Ave. The parade will commence immediately afterward and make a circuit through the main streets of Langhorne, including Bellevue and Maple Avenues and Pine Street (Route 413).
• The Penndel-Hulmeville Memorial Day Parade begins at 9 a.m. Saturday. The parade will march onto Ford Avenue and then turn right onto Main. It will follow Main to Hulme Avenue and Hulme to Bellevue, where it will pause at the memorial for a prayer before continuing to Woodland, then to Hulmeville Road. The parade ends at the Penndel Memorial Ball Field. A reviewing stand will be set up at the end of the parade featuring parade officials and honored guests.

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.