Memorial Day Parade Marches Through Beverly Early This Year

BEVERLY, MA — Memorial Day came early in Beverly this past weekend with some residents expressing surprise and frustration that the city's parade honoring veterans and fallen heroes occurred the week before the official holiday.

Mayor Mike Cahill sent out a robocall on Saturday afternoon notifying residents that Beverly Farms cemetery services would be the next morning with a downtown parade that afternoon.

That left some residents scratching their heads as to why those activities were not happening on the actual Memorial Day weekend — as they are in nearly every other community along the North Shore.

There will still be a Memorial Day ceremony at Independence Park this upcoming Saturday at 11 a.m.

"The Beverly Veteran Council spent many meetings talking about this," the council posted in a response to the social media scuttlebutt. "We knew that a move would create confusion and some other issues but ultimately we decided to move the day of the parade. We weighted many of the factors. The first and most important was the support other veteran groups needed.

"The veterans that participate not only support our parade but others on the North Shore. Each year we lose more and more veterans who directly support events. So, as veterans often do, we make sacrifices for each other. The Beverly veterans sacrificed a tradition to support other veteran groups and to give them the opportunity to obtain support that we, the city of Beverly, usually monopolize on Memorial Day.

"It's not just about our veterans. Our brothers and sisters in arms from other towns also deserve a spectacular event."

The council added that the move was also intended to allow the Beverly High School band and Beverly Marine Corps JROTC to participate in the parade and services while still maintaining their three-day weekend to spend time with their families.

"So, again, the veteran council debated what would help those kids and parents," the statement said. "This year they will be able to go away and enjoy time together. Many veterans spend months or years away from home so family time is rather important to us. Most families in Beverly work extremely hard and may only have the public holiday off work to spend with each other.

"We hope that this way they can honor the veterans and enjoy the down time."

The council cited some cost savings in having the parade on the alternative weekend as "competition for support has only gotten more fierce each year and we were following events from the lockdowns and other issues."

The council said it will work on better and earlier notifications in the future to go along with its own social media posts.

"And, yes, we are working to get the tanks back for next year," the council said. "To all of you who could make it out to the events thank you. To those of you who couldn't make it, sorry you missed out."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)