Historical Background on Memorial Day and the Festival of Flags
We are proud to host the Festival and are humbled by such feedback as from those of the
North Cascade Chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association who told us...
"Over the years we have attended many memorials, parades and military ceremonies with great pride and honor. We have never attended a finer Memorial Day tribute to all our veterans than the Festival of Flags. We all felt great pride and honor as your guests. It is from the bottom of our hearts that we thank you for your great patriotism and your love of country.”
Here is historical background that may help provide an even deeper appreciation for Memorial Day, the Festival of Flags, and the many honored guests, like the Pearl Harbor Survivors, who share this experience together......
The Original "Avenue of Flags"
Continues each year at the Festival of Flags
The Albert J. Hamilton American Legion Post 7 Avenue of Flags, hosted by Moles Greenacres Memorial Park, began back in 1965 when 48 flags were donated to honor military service veterans who died. The Avenue of Flags, active throughout Memorial Day Weekend, is the largest display in Northwest Washington and the fourth largest display in Washington State. It is a stirring part of the annual Festival of Flags hosted on Memorial Day itself. The Avenue continues to grow as new families donate flags each year.
The flags, which now number about 1,500, are ones that were presented to the veteran’s next of kin on behalf of the President of the United States. The family then donates the flag to Moles Greenacres if they would like to have it mounted on a flagpole, which includes a brass plaque identifying the veteran associated with the flag. It will then be flown each year at the Avenue of Flags, at that year's Festival of Flags. This clearly carries special meaning to the surviving family members.
The Avenue of Flags is a patriotic and breathtaking display, one in which the team at Moles Greenacres believes to be of utmost importance in providing much-earned recognition and honor.
The Origin of Memorial Day
Three years after the Civil War ended, Major General John A. Logan, the head of an organization of former Union soldiers and sailors (Grand Army of the Republic, GAR), established Decoration Day, today called Memorial Day, as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. His declaration on May 5, 1868 declared that Decoration Day should be held on May 30. The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, where the remains of 20,000 Union dead and several hundred Confederate dead were interred.
General Logan’s order for his posts to decorate graves in 1868, “with the choicest flowers of springtime”, urged this: “We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance...Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”
In 1971, Memorial Day, although it is still often called Decoration Day, was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, and is celebrated on the last Monday in May.
Wreath Ceremony
The gift of flowers at a memorial site occurs around the world and is understood in every culture. Floral tributes at funerals bespeak both the beauty and the brevity of life and evoke memories of other days. These sorts of offerings are made every day at funerals, cemeteries in our Nation, and in solitary communion with a departed loved one. The ritual laying of flowers or a wreath are frequently part of annual observances by veteran groups or other organizations, making sure that mass casualties are not forgotten.
Here the wreath is being placed by the American Legion Auxiliary, Albert J. Hamilton Post #7. This wreath contains poppies made by disabled and hospitalized veterans. The poppy has become a world wide recognized symbol of sacrifice and is worn to honor the men and women who served and died for their country in all wars, including the Global War on Terror. The poppy reminds communities and this nation of the sacrifices and continuing needs of our veterans and service members.
The Poppy Found its Place in Memorial Day
thanks to
"In Flanders Fields"
The poppy become a symbol of sacrifice in response to
Col. John McCrae’s famous poem, “In Flanders Field.”
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
Hosted by
Moles Greenacres Memorial Park
5700 Northwest Dr. (corner of Northwest & Axton), Ferndale, WA 98248
360-384-3401
Festival Host
Please enjoy listening to KGMI's Podcast of the...
Our website currently features the 46th Annual Festival of Flags. We are now preparing the 47th Annual Festival - hope to see you Memorial day 2012!
“For many in Whatcom County, the Festival of Flags is the place to go to celebrate Memorial Day the right way…
because Moles takes it upon itself every year to transform its Greenacres Memorial Park into a flag-draped sanctuary for remembering those in the US military who have fallen in the line of duty.”
- Ferndale
Record Journal
