Memorial Day Weekend 2024: Events, Parades Around Warminster

WARMINSTER — The township has a special surprise guest for its annual Memorial Day parade: The Phillie Phanatic. Meanwhile, Ivyland will also be holding a Memorial Day parade.

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

The Warminster VFW Post 6493 & Auxiliary has once again put together this year's parade, which will begin at the Warminster Township administrative building on Monday, May 27. The parade kicks off at 10 a.m. Monday. (Read this Patch story for more details.)

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 Warminster 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 Warminster Township.

Below are more ways to spend the weekend:

• Ivyland's Memorial Day will begin with the Parade, which will kick off at 8:00AM from the Ivyland Schoolhouse on Willard Avenue and wind through the streets of historic Ivyland. It will end at the Veterans Memorial at Wilson and Pennsylvania Avenues. The parade will include the Color Guard from Ivyland Boy Scout Troop 200, The William Tennent Marching Panthers, The Ivyland Fire Company, 129th PA Volunteers, Borough Council Members and the Mayor, also invited are District Justice Chris O'Neill and former District Justice Dan Finello. The Principal speaker at the ceremony will be State Representative Brian Munroe. An Ivyland tradition is to invite the children of Ivyland to decorate their bikes and wagons and march in the parade.
  The ceremony will take place at the conclusion of the parade. Guest speaker will be Rep. Brian Munroe. The Anthem will be sung by Wm Tennent singers Dakota Landis, Kalena Fuesner, Samantha Carden and Kalena Viera. Taps will be played and the volley will be fired by the 129th PA Volunteers.
• Warrington Memorial Day Ceremony will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Igoe Porter Wellings Memorial Field, 3095 Bradley Road, Chalfont. The 2024 honoree is William E. Focht, Sr., Air Force, Vietnam.

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.