Community Corner

What's Open in Woodbury on Memorial Day?

Here's a list of five spots that will be open on Memorial Day. Know a place that's open (or closed)? Help out your neighbors and tell us in the comments.

This year’s runs from 11 a.m. to noon at the Woodbury Veterans Memorial on the grounds.

(Check out .)

But if you’re out and about before or after, here are five places that are open.

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If you know about a place that’s open or closed, tell us in the comments section.

Starbucks

Find out what's happening in Woodburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The at will be open normal hours, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Target

The off Woodbury Drive is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Memorial Day.

Kowalski’s

will be open from 6 a.m. to midnight.

Holiday

The along Radio Drive opens at 5 a.m. on this holiday.

Lakes Tavern and Grill

Don’t feel like cooking out? will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

History

And for fun, here's some history about Memorial Day from the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs.

• Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans—the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

• It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still sometimes called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as were some other federal holidays.

• In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the “birthplace” of Memorial Day. There, a ceremony on May 5, 1866, honored local veterans who had fought in the Civil War. Businesses closed and residents flew flags at half-staff. Supporters of Waterloo’s claim say earlier observances in other places were either informal, not communitywide or one-time events.

• The origins of special services to honor those who die in war can be found in antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries ago that could be applied today to the 1.1 million Americans who have died in the nation’s wars: “Not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.”

• In December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed and the president signed into law “The National Moment of Remembrance Act,” P.L. 106-579, creating the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance. The commission’s charter is to “encourage the people of the United States to give something back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity” by encouraging and coordinating commemorations in the United States of Memorial Day and the National Moment of Remembrance.

• Many Southern states also have their own days for honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth Monday of April, and Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe it on May 10, Louisiana on June 3 and Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day Jan. 19 and Virginia calls the last Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day.

 

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