2016 Royal Oak Memorial Day Parade: What You Need to Know

ROYAL OAK, MI – On Monday, May 30, residents of Royal Oak and the surrounding area will pay tribute to the community’s war dead at the annual Memorial Day Parade and Service.

All veterans, veterans’ groups, school and community organizations are invited to participate. Though Memorial Day is a day set aside to honor those who have paid the supreme sacrifice for our country but the Royal Oak Memorial Day Parade Committee invites everyone to pay tribute to those who are currently serving, or have served, in the military.

The parade will start at 9 a.m. near Main Street and Harrison and will proceed north to Second Street, where the traditional post-parade Memorial Service will be held at the Royal Oak Veteran's Memorial at Veteran’s Plaza.

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Young children will once again be encouraged to decorate their bikes and ride in the parade with a veteran or family member, and families and individuals who have lost loved ones are invited to march in the parade carrying the folded U.S. flag received at the veteran’s memorial service.

Preparations begin for Memorial Day with the placement of U.S. flags next to the graves of fallen soldiers from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturday.

On Monday before the parade, will serve a pancake breakfast from 7 a.m.-noon at the Royal Oak Farmers Market.

History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republican, as a way to honor those who died in the four-year Civil War.

More than 20,000 Union and Confederate graves were decorated with flowers at Arlington National Cemetery on the first Decoration Day by 5,000 war widows, mourners and others.

New York was the first state to officially recognize Decoration Day in 1873, and it was recognized by all the Northern states by 1890. Southern states, where strong anti-North sentiments ran deep for decades after the Civil War, held their own separate observances to honor their war dead, eschewing Decoration Day as an observance to honor Union soldiers.

It became an official U.S. holiday in 1971, and the name was changed to Memorial Day, though it is still called Decoration Day in many areas, and the tradition of laying flowers on graves of veterans and civilians alike is an important tradition for many Americans.

Almost every U.S. state now observes Memorial Day on the last Monday in May, but several Southern states still honor Confederate War dead on a separate day, including Texas (Jan. 19); April 26th in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi (April 26); South Carolina (May 10); and Louisiana and Tennessee (June 3, Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis’ birthday).

National Moment of Silence

The “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.’ ”