Memorial Day Traditions

What will you be doing this holiday weekend?

May 27, 2023

It’s the beginning of a holiday weekend and the unofficial start of summer. To celebrate, maybe you are planning a picnic or a bar-b-que. Maybe you’re camping. Maybe you’re just looking forward to 3 days off from work. Or maybe, like me, you’ll be at the cemetery.

family tombstone (all photos by Jan Peppler)

Tom’s family has been in the Wood River Valley (Idaho) for generations. By the time I met him, there were plenty of plots to visit in the cemetery. Four years ago, his mother become one of those. This is why I’m here at this time. This is a tradition I don’t like to miss.

It’s said that May 30^th was first chosen (back in the 1860s) as the day to honor those who died in military service because flowers would be in bloom. Only in 1971 was the holiday moved to the last Monday in May. When you live in high elevations like Sun Valley, Idaho, you’re never really sure if the flowers will be blooming. But if they are, they’re quite a treat.

Apple trees, choke cherry, and crab apples are blossoming. Tulips, long gone in Tulsa, are in their glory here. But it’s the lilac bushes that we’re waiting for. Lots and lots of lilacs everywhere. White, lavender, and deep purple are starting to open and hopefully, with a few days of warm weather, they’ll bloom enough to cut.

Lilacs take center stage on Memorial Day, filling up to twenty-four buckets for placement on graves. Flower arranging is a family affair and this year there are ten of us gathered, plus a newborn. Early Monday morning some will begin walking up and down the street cutting lilacs from various family properties while others line up the buckets, fill them with water, and add flowers.

If winter was long, as it was this year, blooming plants are purchased and potted. And when all the containers are full, we load them into cars and trucks and drive over to the cemetery.