Decoration Day
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Decoration Day 1876 at Mystic Seaport
Monday, May 27, 2013 / 10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Mystic Seaport will pay tribute to fallen Civil War soldiers during the Museum's annual Decoration Day ceremony on May 27.
Known today as Memorial Day, Decoration Day was formally instituted by the U.S. Government in 1868 as a day of national remembrance of those killed during the Civil War. Decoration Day observances included tending and decorating the graves of the fallen, as well as church services, solemn processions and community suppers.
Observances will begin inside the Museum's Fishtown Chapel with the "Roll of the Dead" at 10:30 a.m. Names of the fallen soldiers that lay in Elm Grove Cemetery, located in Mystic, Connecticut, will be read and visitors can lay a remembrance in their honor. At 12 p.m., tolling steeple bells from the Greenmanville Church will invite visitors inside for a brief memorial service and hymns.
Following the service a uniformed color guard playing a funeral dirge and citizens of 1876 Greenmanville will lead a solemn procession to Middle Wharf for the playing of Taps and a wreath laying upon the Mystic River. The day's observances conclude with a gathering in the Seamen's Friend Society Reading Room where visitors can speak with the citizens of 1876 Greenmanville about their memories of the Civil War.
Looking for more to do this Memorial Day Weekend? Join us for Lobster Days!