A guide to Memorial Day 2025. Above, local veterans honoring Memorial Day following the 2023 parade in Syosset
In Honor of Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a time of solemn remembrance, where those who served and those who care for them come together to honor those who died in service to our country.
Please do not wish a veteran a happy Memorial Day. Instead, perhaps, offer that person space to reflect, an intention of quiet comfort, a willingness to go with them wherever they need. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer a little light and levity – I’ve had more than one tell me the children and the barbecues are as important as the parades, because these are what they would fight to preserve — but it does mean you should do so with care and respect.
It’s also a good time for the rest of us to engage in personal reflection; to think about the responsibility we have as citizens to do what we can to ensure that those who offer so much to “US” – their very freedom at the very least — are treated well, and that we give it our best to be a nation somehow worthy of such sacrifice.
Here are facts and traditions from the Old Farmer’s Almanac, including why the Poppy is so important not only as a symbol of those who were lost, but of hope and healing as well. Here’s another at History.com.
Find information on the National Memorial Day Concert, share your remembrances and read others’ on PBS.
Honoring those lost to war is a practice older than time. Even in its modern form, people still have a hard time tracing the origin of Memorial Day. We know the concept of an annual day of remembrance began to take widespread root in the United States following the Civil War. While many communities likely came together independently to honor their dead, Waterloo, NY was declared the official birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. New York was also the first state to officially recognize it as a holiday in 1873. The last Monday in May finally became a uniform day of remembrance across the nation in 1971.
Memorial Day 2025 Events Across Long Island.
We encourage you to check out your own hyper-local paper to see what’s happening in your hamlet.
Leading up to Memorial Day has been Fleet Week in NYC. At a more regional level, CBS News offers “Fleet Week 2025, underway in NYC. See the Schedule of Events,” while Fox5 New York and Briana Scalia offer “NYC Fleet Week 2025: How to enjoy the festivities.” These each include mention of an event in Eisenhower Park today, that involves a helicopter landing, a parade of military vehicles from the Museum of American Armor in Bethpage, performance by the Navy Band Northeast and Navy Ceremonial Guard and other military displays to honor 80 years since the end of World War II.
The Four Leaf Air Show (formerly the Bethpage Air Show) is also being held today and tomorrow at Jones Beach. At News12, Jonathan Gordon says, “Here’s everything you need to know about the annual FourLear Air Show at Jones Beach.” There, Kevin Vesey also offers a piece entitled, “Plainview veterans reflect on the true meaning of Memorial Day”
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Every year….ok…well…more often than that….I reread this story I wrote with “Mr. Memorial Day,” the “Americanism Chairman of Nassau County,” dear treasure of a soul Gus Scutari. He wrote that article with me when he was well into his 90s. He would be over 100 now. They were certainly words of wisdom — I don’t think I will ever fail to get something new out of them.
Gus had a way of saying things that seemed simple at first; things that would then reverberate with deeper meaning as time passed. I will never forget his face when I asked if he’d like me to read the final copy of his article aloud to him. He saw me realize I’d probably insulted him, and then smiled. He took the draft from me, proofread the whole thing carefully, and then offered a final comment or two, making sure everything was just right.
In 2019, Gus organized the Syosset parade from his room in the local nursing home, where he was living with his wife Fran (another Syosset treasure). Having heard a final phone conversation, I am just about certain that if it weren’t for the parade being cancelled due to COVID, he’d still be here with us making final preparations for it now.
When the parade returned in 2022, the community honored Gus by declaring there would be no Grand Marshal of Syosset’s Memorial Day Parade. They also renamed Underhill Boulevard in his honor, as well as the specific spot on the corner where he led so many moving ceremonies. His beloved VFW, Post 6394 in Syosset, is now The Gus Scutari Post. We suspect that, given the opportunity, Gus would make it clear that the Eugene S. Smith American Legion Post 135 was also very important to him, but is already named after a notable veteran.
Gus wanted us to remember that Memorial Day is about people who gave EVERYTHING for their country. He also wanted us to always remember that this is OUR country, that we should honor that and always remember that it will only ever be as good as we will make it.
Through the parade, and really through every interaction he had with anyone he happened to meet, Gus endeavored to bring people together as Americans. He encouraged us all to give it our best to be good citizens; To think, to honor, to smile…to be the kind of people worthy of those folks who will give everything to defend them. He often worried what would happen to the parade once he was gone. I am grateful to say the community was quietly supporting him more than he knew while he was still here, and has done a good job of carrying his spirit forward, best they can, ever since. I suspect he would be quietly pleased.
Gus never wanted Memorial Day to be about him, though on some level it always was. I suspect it will probably continue to be so in Syosset, at least for a little while. That’s ok. So much of what he was about was apropos of everything.
Still, I will try to get this all out of my system today and tomorrow and then focus where he wanted me to come this weekend.
May God bless America. May God bless everyone. May we give it our best such that none of this ever be in vain.
