Here are the Memorial Day observances and parades that will take place around Grundy County over the weekend.

Minooka

Minooka American Legion Post 1188 is hosting a Memorial Day parade and observance at 10 a.m. Monday starting at Mission Bible Church, 412 N Wabena Avenue. A memorial service will follow the parade at Veterans Park at the corner of Mondamin Street and Wabena Avenue.

Coal City, Diamond and Carbon Hill

St. Juvin VFW Post 1336 hosts its Memorial Day observance at 11:45 a.m. Monday at the Veterans Memorial located at the Coal City Intermediate School, 305 E. Division St.

Morris

John Martin Steele VFW Post 6049 will host a parade and observance, with the parade starting at 10:45 a.m. at Chapin Park, running toward the Grundy County courthouse. The observance starts at 11:00 a.m. at the courthouse. There is no registration required for the parade, and the community is welcome to participate. Those participating should be at the park by 10:15 a.m.

A history of Memorial Day, as told by the Grundy County Veterans Assistance Commission

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers, and singing hymns.

It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars.

In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as were some other federal holidays.

To ensure the sacrifices of America’s fallen heroes are never forgotten, in December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed, and the president signed into law, “The National Moment of Remembrance Act,” P.L. 106-579, creating the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance. The commission’s charter is to “encourage the people of the United States to give something back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity,” by encouraging and coordinating commemorations in the United States of Memorial Day and the National Moment of Remembrance.

Across our nation on Memorial Day, we gather to honor and remember those who gave what Abraham Lincoln called the “last full measure of devotion” in the fight for our liberty; we honor America’s finest men and women who gave their lives in defense of a nation, in defense of its people.