Whenever we gather with our family and friends to celebrate Memorial Day, it’s important to remember what—or rather who—we honor: the valorous men and women in uniform who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our country and our freedom. They are the reason we can enjoy BBQ in our backyard to the sound of music playing from the radio or TV.
Here are 10 suggestions to help you show your patriotism this Memorial Day.
Electronic messages like SMS and emails may travel instantaneously, but they lack the intimacy and personality of a letter written by hand. Your correspondent and other people can tell that you invested time and energy into putting your thoughts and feelings on paper.
That’s why a handwritten thank-you letter can make a profound impact on our soldiers and their families. Grab the nearest pen and paper, make yourself comfortable, and tell them how grateful you are for their heroism.
Once you seal the letter envelopes, take them to a nonprofit organization that delivers letters to our troops abroad. A Million Thanks and similar organizations will make sure your handwritten letters get to where they’re needed and will get appreciated.
Show our troops you truly care for their well-being by making packages that can soothe their homesickness and give them some semblance of the comforts they left at home. Be it everyday nonperishable goods like toiletries, old but still-usable items, or handcrafted articles, the contents of your care package will warm the hearts of their recipients.
Since our soldiers often share their blessings with the locals in their operational areas, your care package may even help win hearts and minds in foreign lands. As Sun Tzu says, the greatest victory is that which requires no battle.
There are nonprofit organizations devoted to making care packages and delivering them to our soldiers posted far away from home. Operation Gratitude, for instance, holds events all year long and will run several events during the Memorial Day weekend. Contact one of these organizations to learn how you can send your care package to American soldiers.
Money can’t buy everything, but it can get plenty of work done. You can support our uniformed servicemen at home and abroad by donating to military organizations, charities, and other nonprofits.
Find a cause that rings a liberty bell with you. You can lend your aid to wounded warriors recuperating in hospitals, comfort military families grieving for a lost loved one, or help battle-worn veterans in their struggle against the traumas of war.
Once you’ve picked a cause, look for an organization that shares your sentiments. Consult with services like Charity Navigator and Charity Watch to learn how the nonprofit works, the amount of funding it receives, and how it manages its funds. If everything checks out, send your donation.
While Memorial Day honors the memories of the fallen, it shouldn’t force a somber mood on you all day. Our soldiers gave their lives so we can live free, and living is just as important as freedom in that context.
Touch up your home to reflect your pride in America. Now’s the time to unfold any American flag you keep in storage (more on this shortly) and hang it on your porch or outside your door. If you don’t have the room to display a full flag, plant a miniature one in a flowerpot or similarly stable container.
If you really feel patriotic, decorate your living room with red-white-and-blue decorations. You can even make them by hand with colored art paper. It’s an excellent way to spend time with your family during the Memorial Day weekend.
You probably have an American flag at home for Memorial Day, Flag Day, and the Fourth of July. Plant the flag in your front yard and display the stars and stripes the right way. You can also fly the flag on your car’s passenger side. Wherever you place the flag, make sure you are treating it with the reverence it deserves.
Set some time aside to read the U.S. Flag Code. The code sets the correct usage and treatment of the American flag. Important rules include the following:
Art offers a means of communication without resorting to spoken language or even written words. An artwork that features red and white stripes alongside white stars and blue patches, for example, can invoke the U.S. flag and stir patriotic feelings.
Check with local authorities if they’re fine with sidewalk chalk art. Once you get the all-clear, break out the sidewalk chalk. Scribble an encouraging message to cheer up any passing soldier on leave or indulge your inner artist by depicting Old Glory with colorful chalk. Your imagination and the supply of chalk are the only limitations.
No Memorial Day can call itself complete without delicious food. Invite your friends and neighbors over for a BBQ party in your backyard.
You can whip up mini sandwiches filled with cream cheese and fruit jam and topped by a piece of fresh fruit. Add a dash of red with raspberries or strawberries and contrast with the blue of blueberries, and you’ve got yourself some delicious finger food that evokes the Stars and Stripes.
You can also cook up a batch of popcorn and add dried blueberries and cranberries into it. A bucket of red, white, and blue popcorn makes for a tasty snack while watching or listening to this year’s Memorial Day Concert (again, more on this later).
If these colorful and meaningful foods strike your interest and your hunger pangs, look up other recipes for red, white, and blue-themed foods.
Laying flowers on the grave of a soldier known to have fought, bled, and died in freedom’s cause is a time-honored tradition. Poppies are a popular choice for those bouquets. They come in red, white, and blue, the right colors for a patriotic bouquet.
In the language of flowers, poppies of those colors match up to the theme of Memorial Day. Red poppies stand for death, remembrance, and consolation. White poppies represent sleep and peaceful rest. Finally, blue poppies speak of success. When put together, a red, white, and blue bouquet of poppies honors our dead, bids them a peaceful repose, and assures them that their sacrifices will not go in vain.
Silence speaks volumes. Some people consider it an emotion, a potent emotion if not the most powerful one. That’s why you often hear people asking for a moment of silence during important events.
The National Moment of Remembrance takes place at 3:00 P.M. local time on Memorial Day. It asks everyone to stay silent for one minute while reflecting upon the heroism of our late soldiers.
In 1989, PBS founded the tradition of airing a concert on the last Sunday of May. Since that pioneering Memorial Day Concert, millions of Americans and people of other nationalities have either attended the live performance at the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building or tuned in to PBS, NPR, and AFN to watch or listen to some of the best performers in the world.
Hosted by Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise, the concert will feature renowned performers like Cynthia Erivo, Gary LeVox, and the National Symphony Orchestra.
The 2024 Memorial Day Concert will air on Sunday, May 26, starting at 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time. You can watch it in the comfort of your patriotically-decorated home while sharing red, white, and blue-themed finger food with your family.
Hopefully, these suggestions not only enliven this year’s Memorial Day, but also deepen your understanding of this important national holiday. There are many ways to display your patriotism and acclaim American men and women in uniform, and these are just a few of them. No matter how you commemorate Memorial Day this year, just make sure it’s meaningful.
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