Memorial Day Parade will take place beginning at 10 a.m. on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25.

The parade route will start at East Main Street, near the A&P shopping center, will proceed to Bloomfield Avenue to Broadway to West Main Stree to Righter Avenue through St. Mary’s Church parking lot to Savage Road. The parade will conclude with ceremonies held at the Denville Cemetery.

Origins of Memorial Day

Memorial Day was originally called, Decoration Day. It is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, to honor our fallen from the Civil War.

“The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” proclaimed General John Logan.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war.

It is now observed in almost every state on the last Monday in May with Congressional passage of the National Holiday Act of 1971, P.L. 90 – 363. This helped ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays, though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19th in Texas; April 26th in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10th in South Carolina; and June 3rd (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.