The town will mark the holiday this year with a parade and ceremony sponsored by the Town of New Canaan and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Howard Bossa and Peter Langenus Post 653. The parade is scheduled to step off from St. Mark’s Church and proceed down Oenoke Ridge, past the Wayside Cross at God’s Acre, the Firehouse and Town Hall, and on to Lakeview Cemetery, where veterans, town officials, marchers and residents will gather for the ceremony.
The route makes remembrance visible. It moves past places that define civic life here and ends at the cemetery, where the meaning of the day becomes concrete. Memorial Day is not a general salute to public service. It is the national day of mourning for those who died while serving in the armed forces of the United States.
New Canaan’s observance begins before the parade. The work begins with the VFW’s annual effort to place flags on veterans’ graves at Lakeview Cemetery and in other cemeteries across town. Volunteers were asked this year to gather at Lakeview Cemetery on May 16 to help VFW Post 653 place flags on gravestones before Memorial Day. The VFW removes the flags afterward so they can be reused, conserving funds and following cemetery flag protocol.
That work is specific and difficult to do without help. The town-wide effort covers more than 1,300 veterans buried in New Canaan’s 14 cemeteries. About 200 people gathered at Lakeview Cemetery that year, including families, scouts, firefighters, police, town officials and members of VFW Post 653, for the flag placement.
The work has history. The Lakeview list grew from an Eagle Scout project by John Wilson of Troop 70, undertaken with the help of his family and troop, and later expanded with names from other cemeteries identified through a local Girl Scout Gold Award project. The Wilson family has continued to work with the VFW on the annual placements.
The money matters, too. VFW Post 653 is donor-supported, makes memorial poppies available for donations at local businesses, and uses fundraising proceeds to pay for flags and wreaths laid on Memorial Day and during the Christmas season on veterans’ graves at Lakeview and other New Canaan cemeteries.
This is what civic memory looks like when it is maintained. It is a list checked against the ground. It is a flag placed at a marker. It is a wreath bought with local donations. It is a child learning, by doing, that sacrifices for freedom’s sake have names attached to them.
New Canaan should attend the parade, but we can do more. The town should support the VFW’s work, help with the cemeteries, teach the purpose of the holiday and treat Memorial Day as a duty before it becomes a weekend.
A town remembers well when remembrance is shared. VFW Post 653 has given New Canaan a practical way to do that. The rest of the town can meet the obligation with gratitude, companionship and presence.
