The Memorial Day Parade is right around the corner, and will take place on Monday, May 29. Local dignitaries, veterans, bands, organizations, floats, and more will travel the usual route down South Livingston Avenue, through Livingston Center, continuing on to North Livingston Avenue. The parade is one of the things that makes Livingston so special – a timehonored tradition, reflecting a slice of “small town America” and celebrating our veterans and what they’ve sacrificed for our nation.
Over the next few weeks the township will be collecting money to fund the upcoming parade, and we encourage our residents to offer their support.
Memorial Day, first known as Decoration Day, originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in that conflict. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died in all of our nation’s wars. Volunteers would place American flags on the graves of veterans, hence the name Decoration Day.
In recent decades, however, Memorial Day has become known more as the official start of the summer season. It’s a long holiday weekend that is often dedicated to fun gatherings of family and friends. It has also, like so many other holidays, been hijacked by commercial interests to tout retail sales promotions.
But we know that Memorial Day is not about the best sales deals. And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with gathering with family and friends to welcome the advent of summer, Memorial Day should be about more than that. It should be a day when we reflect – if only for a few moments – on the many thousands of people who gave their lives for our country and our way of life. Since the days when our nation was a loosely organized group of rebellious colonies, citizens have stepped up to make the ultimate sacrifice so that their fellow countrymen can live in freedom. Everything our nation has, every freedom we enjoy, has been paid for in blood.
We’re hoping the residents of Livingston will step back, refocus on the true meaning of Memorial Day, and show their respect and gratitude for those who died for our freedom by supporting the town’s annual Memorial Day parade. And by that we don’t mean just attending it (and the services held in that morning prior to the procession), although turning out to clap and wave at the familiar faces in the parade is both fun and meaningful. We mean supporting it financially.
The parade has been a long-standing tradition in Livingston since early in the last century. But it costs money. Just as freedom isn’t free, neither is the parade. Although many volunteers put their hearts and souls into it, there are myriad costs involved, including the heftiest of all – the fees for the bands. Many towns all over the U.S. have eliminated their Memorial Day parades due to cost considerations. Livingston has continued to hold one, but each year, it becomes more difficult. We’re asking everyone to give, if only a little, to help keep our parade going. Please send a check to the Livingston Parade Committee, 357 South Livingston Avenue, Livingston, New Jersey 07039. Checks should be made out to “Township of Livingston,” with “Parade” in the memo line.
We all remember how it felt not to have a parade in 2020 and 2021. It was one of several annual events we had to put on pause, and it was dearly missed, just as it was roundly celebrated when it returned last year. Let us do what we can to ensure that we do not miss out on any future Memorial Day parades in Livingston, and keep this tradition alive. In doing so, we pay tribute to those servicemen and women whose lives were cut short in the cause of freedom.
