Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported Skaneateles planned to hold its parade on Tuesday. They held the parade on Monday. The article below has been updated.
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Baldwinsville, N.Y. — While many towns and villages throughout Central New York held Memorial Day parades over the weekend and on Monday, one more parade is scheduled for Tuesday.
Baldwinsville planned its Memorial Day parades for May 30 — the original Memorial Day that dates back to 1868, three years after the Civil War ended.
Although the Uniform Holidays Bill of 1968 created long weekends with three days off ending with holidays, such as Memorial Day on the last Monday in May, some municipalities like the village of Baldwinsville continue to follow tradition.
“Our leaders said we don’t want to switch, we think it’s important enough to remember the day for what it is and we want May 30 to still be Memorial Day in Baldwinsville,” Village Mayor Dick Clarke said.
The village has a proclamation, which states the village will commemorate Memorial Day on the traditional day of remembrance, May 30.
This year, May 30 happens to fall on a Tuesday.
The mayor said that’s good news for his village this year because more people can come watch and participate in the parade since no one else has a parade at the same time.
Baldwinsville is expecting anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 people to line the streets Tuesday evening to watch 51 groups and individuals — including bands, dance groups, fire trucks, politicians — march in the parade, Clarke said.
“We don’t recognize Memorial Day as the first day of summer, we don’t recognize it as a party,” he said. “We recognize it as a solemn day to remember those (military personnel) we’ve lost defending our country.”
Here’s the schedule for Tuesday’s Memorial Day parade:
Baldwinsville
Tuesday, May 30
6 p.m.
A service will be held at the Veteran’s Monument (in front of the Post Office) at 5:45 p.m., followed by a parade. A ceremony will be held at Riverview Cemetery at 6:50 p.m. A decorated helicopter pilot, retired Col. Blaine Fleming, is the parade’s grand marshal. Lysander residents Lorie and Rick Schneider, whose son Marine Cpl. Kyle Schneider was killed in 2011 in Afghanistan, will speak at the cemetery following the parade.
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