By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

May 19, 2026: As Memorial Day fast approaches, I became quite curious as to its origin as I think it is truly the most inspirational and introspective of the national holidays so I did a little research that I found interesting enough to share.

As many of my generation remember, Memorial Day was first known as Decoration Day as we went to family graves and monuments delivering flags and patriotic floral displays.

Its origination was immediately following the Civil War, but it actually did not become an official United States holiday until 1971.

Immediately post-Civil War, Americans began going to cemeteries and decorating graves with any family mementos of honor. Sadly, the United States had to establish national cemeteries because the Civil War took the lives of 750,000 Americans or 2% of the national population. Brothers fought and killed brothers as families were torn apart.

In 1868 General John Logan, leader of an organization for northern Civil War veterans, called for a Nationwide Day of Remembrance on May 30, choosing precisely that date because it was not the anniversary of any battle in the Civil War.

The first large scale observance came just three years after the cessation of the Civil War when General and Mrs. Grant presided over a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery as Union veterans and orphan children placed flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate dead - an act of incredible reconciliation and humanity.

It was also at Arlington National Cemetery that the custom of placing small American flags next to the graves was first begun.

It was only after the death and sadness of World War I that the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars. The tradition continued on an unorganized basis as there truly wasn’t a national recognition.

In 2000, President Clinton signed the National Moment of Remembrance asking all Americans to pause and observe a moment of silence at 3 PM on Memorial Day each year going forward. I learned that Amtrak trains actually blast all of their whistles at that precise moment and Major League Baseball and NASCAR pause events.

The origin of special services and moments of recognition to honor those who died in war can be traced to antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries ago. His words at the time are most apropos for the 1.1+ million Americans who have died in our nation’s wars. “Not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them graven not in stone, but hopefully in the hearts of men “

Our own Village started truly participating in a very serious way in Memorial Day celebrations starting in 1920.

By contrast, the 1919 May 30th issue of the Bronxville Review Press Reporter noted that, “Decoration Day will pass with little excitement in Bronxville perhaps because few or no Civil War veterans are buried here.”

Our first official Village celebration was a small parade populated mostly by members of the newly established Leonard Morange Post of the American Legion in 1920. Leonard Morange was a Village resident and the first to die in World War I in 1918 having joined the RAF to pursue pilot training.

The veterans marched down Kraft Avenue to the “Picture House” for a commemorative program beginning at 8 PM with prayers, hymns, taps and the reading of the names of Villagers killed in World War I. In 1921, the Memorial Day parade added an important stop to this route. After parading down Kraft and Pondfield, everyone stopped at the Village cemetery, where the graves of eight soldiers were decorated with flowers and flags followed by another evening commemorative program at the Picture House.

By 1926, so many different groups in the Village wanted to join the ceremonies that they moved the movie theater event to midafternoon. Since 1927, and all the years to the present, the event was then scheduled for 9 AM and included a stop at the World War I memorial at the Bronxville School. In 1980, memorials to the veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars were added to the memorial monuments in Leonard Morange Park.

This year’s parade will mark the 106th Memorial Day celebration, a cherished tradition that reflects the Village’s enduring commitment to honoring the men and women who have served our country. Leading this year’s commemoration as Grand Marshals are Randy and Corky Frost, members of a proud third-generation Village family whose deep roots and longstanding dedication to the community embody the spirit of the occasion. Their selection recognizes not only their family’s history in the Village, but also their years of service, involvement, and commitment to preserving the values of patriotism, remembrance, and community pride that Memorial Day represents.

Written for Memorial Day but so prescient for May 2026, Thomas Jefferson said, “A difference of opinion in politics should never be permitted to enter in any social intercourse or to disturb its friendships, its charities or justice. Let us then stand fellow citizens and unite with one heart and one mind and let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.” – Words to live by every day, not just Memorial Day.