2016 Ferndale Memorial Day Parade: What You Need to Know

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

The Memorial Day Parade will begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 30, 2016 from Woodward and Maplehurst south to Nine Mile Road, west to Livernois and to the Veteran's Memorial.

Spectators are welcome to bring lawn chairs and set up on the sidewalks of West Nine Mile Road and on the Woodward median from Maplehurst to Nine Mile Road.

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No tents are allowed.

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.’ ”