Acadia-St. Landry Memorial Day events (click on the date for details)
May 27th - Memorial Day Exhibit Unveiling @ Le Vieux Presbytere in Church Point
May 29th - St. Landry Parish Annual Memorial Day Ceremony, Opelousas
May 29th - Memorial Day Program held at Nall Park, Krotz Springs
If you know of a local event in Acadia or St. Landry parish not listed please submit it to us here or tag us on social media @MacKidAcadia so we can update our list!!
Patriotic Ideas for Observing Memorial Day
Besides Memorial Day ceremonies and parades, you can also include other observances in your Memorial Day weekend activities, from visiting a cemetery to learning more about the sacrifices that have been made from a veteran, to adding some patriotic touches to your meals, to observing a moment of silence.
Anything you do to honor the true meaning of the holiday will help your kids understand that it is much, much more than the first weekend of summer.
Create Patriotic Art
- Draw patriotic murals in sidewalk chalk
- Create wreaths out of red, white and blue stars cut out of construction paper and paste on a paper plate
- Use craft sticks (popsicle sticks) to make a US flag
Paint rocks with patriotic symbols and place around local spots in your community
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Write letters to troops to recognize the heroes still fighting for us every day. Operation We Are Here offers a great resource for sending letters to deployed military personnel.
Watch Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero - an animated feature suitable for little ones that is based on a true story.
Tune into PBS on Sunday, May 28th at 7pm for the Annual Memorial Day Concert.
Did you know that ...
- The Grand Army of the Republic began decorating the graves of fallen service members with flowers in May 1868, which was then known as "Decoration Day".
- In 1971 Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday, to be observed on the last Monday in May, moving it from the static date of May 30, in order to create a 3-day weekend.
- On the Thursday before Memorial Day, small American flags are placed at each of the 400,000+ gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery and other cemeteries nation-wide.
- To encourage more people to observe Memorial Day, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act in 2000, which asks people to stop what they are doing at 3:00pm local time and observe a minute of silence to honor those who lost their lives defending the country.
- On Memorial Day, the flag should first be raised to the top of the staff, then slowly lowered to half-staff, until noon when it should be raised to the top of the staff for the rest of the day.
- Red poppies are considered the Memorial Day flower. There is a poem called "In Flanders Fields" that refers to the fields of poppies growing among soldiers' graves during the First World War.
