Memorial Day Weekend 2024: Special Ceremony In Howard County

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — The American Legion Post 156 and Marine Corps League Detachment 1084 will hold a Memorial Day Ceremony Sunday at noon. The three-day Memorial Day weekend runs May 25-27.

The ceremony will take place at St. John Episcopal Church, 9120 Frederick Rd. in Ellicott City.

The Color Guard will be provided by the Howard County Civil Air Patrol and the guest speaker will be Cole Schnorf, a Gold Star family member, who will be providing comments on the meaning of Memorial Day for a Gold Star family member.

The upcoming Memorial Day ceremony 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 Columbia cemeteries and leave flowers at the graves of family members, regardless of whether they served in the military.

Memorial Day Weekend also is the unofficial kickoff to summer in Columbia. 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.