Memorial Day Weekend 2024: Parade, Events Around New Hope-Lambertville

NEW HOPE, PA — The upcoming Memorial Day Parade and ceremony in Lambertville, New Jersey is part of a nearly 160-year tradition that pays tribute to military personnel who lost their lives in service to their country.

On Monday, May 27 the city will honor the memory of those who died with its annual parade followed by a commemorative ceremony at Mary Sheridan Park. The parade is the highlight of the three-day Memorial Day Weekend - May 25 to 27 this year.

The Lambertville Memorial Day Parade steps off at 9 a.m. from the corner of North Union and Cherry streets. The parade will then head south on Union Street to Mount Hope Street, then north on Main Street to York Street before ending at Mary Sheridan Park with a ceremony honoring all those who served their country. Immediately following the ceremony, all are invited to the American Legion for its annual picnic.

In other weekend observances:

• Washington Crossing Historic Park will hold a Memorial Day weekend ceremony on Sunday, May 26 at 1 p.m. The event will be held at The Revolutionary War Soldiers Gravesite behind the Thompson Neely House located at 1638 River Road, New Hope 18938. The observation will include a colonial color guard, fife and drum music, Revolutionary War reenactors, veterans, and other honored guests.

As the observance has changed over the years, many families also use Memorial Day as an occasion to visit New Hope and Lambertville 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 New Hope. Below are more ways to spend the weekend:

• On Saturday, May 25 at 1 p.m., the New Hope Historical Society will honor those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield in defense of their country. The tribute will be the highlight of the Historical Society’s bi-weekly Walking Tour of Historic New Hope. “We will discuss two significant monuments in New Hope honoring our fallen soldiers,” noted Roy Ziegler, a member of the Historical Society’s Board of Directors and past president. “One pays tribute to Private Edgar H. Denson who died in France in World War I. The other memorial is the bridge over Stockton Avenue, now named for Staff Sergeant Karol Raymond Bauer, a 28-year-old United States Marine who was killed in action leading his platoon in a raid on Quang Tri Province in Vietnam on April 30, 1967." The tour will also include stops along important sites from the Revolutionary War, and a discussion of the Civil War cannon that is placed next to the World War I memorial in the center of New Hope. The tour begins at 1 p.m. on the back porch of the Parry Mansion Museum at 45 S. Main Street in New Hope. Tours are free for members of the New Hope Historical Society and for children under 12 years old. There is a $10 admission for adult non-members.

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.