Taking off Travel blog

How are you planning to celebrate the Memorial Day weekend? Celebrated this year from May 28-31 the three day holiday has both a serious and a fun side. The serious of course is about commemorating the war dead, a practice that first started in 1868 following the Civil War. It was then known as Decoration Day. Memorial Day itself, celebrated on the last Monday in May, became a national holiday in 1971.

Flags-In at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia

For those looking to adhere to the spirit of the holiday then one of the best places to start is with a trip to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Activities there include wreath laying, a remembrance ceremony and a concert. There is also the Flags-In ceremony which sees a flag placed in front of the gravestones of each service member buried there. The flags are placed just before the weekend and removed just after.

If you don’t happen to be near Virginia then there are lots of other memorials you can visit to commemorate the occasion. Many of these are in Washington DC but there are a few others in other parts of the country. Here’s a list of some of those memorials, courtesy of Wikipedia.

• The National Memorial Arch (Valley Forge National Historical Park, 1910), in honor of “the officers and private soldiers of the Continental Army”.
• The Tomb of the Unknowns (Arlington, Virginia, opened 1921), memorializing the unidentified dead Americans in all wars
• The USMC War Memorial (Arlington, Virginia, opened 1954), memorializing all personnel of the U.S. Marine Corps who have died in the defence of the United States since 1775
• The USS Arizona Memorial (Honolulu, Hawaii, opened 1962), commemorating the US dead in the attack on Pearl Harbor
• The Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Washington, D.C., opened 1982), commemorating the US war dead in the Vietnam War
• The Vietnam Women’s Memorial (Washington, D.C., opened 1993), in memory of women, mostly nurses, who served in the Vietnam War.
• The Korean War Veterans Memorial (Washington, D.C., opened 1995), commemorating the men and women who served in the Korean War
• The Liberty Memorial (Kansas City, Missouri, opened 1926, redesigned 2000), America’s National World War I memorial and museum, in remembrance of those who served and died in the First World War
• The National D-Day Memorial (Bedford, Virginia, opened 2001), in remembrance of those who served and died in the Battle of Normandy
• The National World War II Memorial (Washington, D.C., opened 2004), in honor of those who served the US in World War II.

Of course, not everyone wants to visit a memorial on this occasion. Some prefer quiet contemplation and observing the moment of silence at 3 PM on Memorial Day itself. And still others celebrate with a variety of picnics, parties and trips. What are your plans?

(Photo credit)

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Tags: Attractions, memorial day, travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 6:10 am and is filed under travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.