Coming up this Sunday, the Weyburn Legion Branch #47 is hosting their Decoration Day at the Hillcrest and Green Acres Cemetery. Every year, volunteers throughout Canada visit the local cemeteries to place Canadian flags and decorate the grave sites of those who served.
According to the Weyburn Legion’s Facebook page; “historically, before Remembrance Day came about, Canadians had a different memorial called Decoration Day in which we commemorated our war dead with the laying of real flowers, not in the hopeless gloom of November but in the warm light and optimism of late spring or in summer, often on the weekend closest to June 2, the anniversary of Canada's forgotten first modern battle, the Battle of Ridgeway in 1866.” Jerry Ponto with the Weyburn Legion Branch #47 gives the details and talks on the significance of Decoration Day.
“Now folks may ask, what is Decoration Day and what's that all about? Well, Decoration Day is a day, the first Sunday of June, where a dedicated group of volunteers go out and they place a Canadian flag of every grave of a veteran that has been interred at Hillcrest Cemetery and at Green Acres. There’s over 700 service personnel whose graves we visit on that day.”
With beautiful summertime weather shining in Weyburn, it’s shaping up to be a beautiful day to decorate these graves and honour the brave veterans who fought and paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.
Decoration Day will start at 9:00 A.M. on Sunday at the two cemeteries to start placing the flags, a break for a bit before a 2:00 P.M. short cemetery at the cenotaph up at Hillcrest Cemetary and a barbeque to follow at the Legion. As Ponto states, they’re grateful for the volunteer help but could always use more.
“Anybody that wants to come out and help, we certainly encourage them to do so. There are team leaders there that help guide people to where they need to go so, they can phone the Legion Branch at 306-842-4258 and get their name on the list and certainly we welcome anyone and everyone to come out and participate.”