Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Boston Parks and Recreation Department have announced Memorial Day observances taking place in City-owned parks and cemeteries.
On Thursday, May 22, the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to the families of military service personnel from Massachusetts fallen in service to the United States, will host a service at 10:30 a.m. at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common.
The event will include the reading of the names of Bay State service members who have died as a result of active duty post-9/11. The reading will take place among a flag garden with 37,000 miniature American flags honoring the sacrifices of all fallen Massachusetts service men and women dating back to the Revolutionary War.
Every year for the past 68 years, the City of Boston’s Veterans Services, in conjunction with the American Legion, AMVETS, Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans’ organizations, hosts a commemorative Memorial Day Service.
This year’s Presentation of the Colors will be held on Fri., May 23, at 9:30 a.m. at the Sgt. Charles A. MacGillvary Veterans Memorial Park, located in the Back Bay Fens opposite the rear of the Museum of Fine Arts and adjacent to Roberto Clemente Stadium. The event is free and open to the public.
On Sunday, May 25, a Memorial Day ceremony will be held at Mount Hope Cemetery, 355 Walk Hill St., Mattapan, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will include a short parade from inside the cemetery gate up to the WWI and WWII Monument, where the ceremony will be held. For more information, please contact Arthur Smith of the American Legion at 617-298-7509.
On Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, services will be held at Fairview Cemetery, 45 Fairview Ave., Hyde Park, at 11 a.m. The day’s activities begin with an 8 a.m. service at the Fogg-Roberts American Legion Post 78, located at 56 Harvard Ave. in Hyde Park.
From there, participants will march to a Mass at Most Precious Blood Parish at 43 Maple St. and then return to the post for the start of a tour of local veteran’s squares. The procession will end up at the Civil War Memorial at Fairview Cemetery for the closing ceremony at 11 a.m. For more information, please contact Andy Murphy of the Fogg Post at 617-364-1636.
In addition, a Memorial Day observance will also be held on May 26 at Evergreen Cemetery, 2060 Commonwealth Ave., Brighton, at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For further information, please call the City of Boston’s Cemetery Division at 617-635-7361.