Memorial Day Ceremony in Margraten

Disclaimer:I want to warn you the blog you are about to read was written by me, Ben. Ellen has taken sometime off from blogging tonight. She apologizes to all of her regular fans and promises that she will return soon with what all of you have come to love and enjoy.

On Sunday I got the distinct pleasure of getting tasked to volunteer to be in the Memorial Day Ceremony at the Margraten American Cemetery. So, one of the few long weekends I get soon turned into a short weekend. It is all good though. I actually freely volunteered because I would have been going to the ceremony anyways. As you may know Ellen and I both have great uncles that are buried in this cemetery. I thought it was only right that I pay my respects and give up a few hours on Saturday and Sunday.



We actually really lucked out. Sunday ended up being the only semi-nice day out of the whole weekend. NO RAIN! and a little bit of sunshine. YEA!! The weather was beautiful and there were a whole lot of people there to pay their respects. According to the organizers it is the largest Memorial Day Ceremony in all of Europe.


I could go into all of the details of the ceremony however, I don't think that is necessary. It was much like other memorial ceremonies you have been to. This one had speeches (only in multiple languages), it had high ranking Generals (from multiple countries), it had wreaths (from multiple countries), it had songs (in multiple languages) and it had two flybys (from multiple countries).


It was a very nice ceremony and I am very glad that I took the opportunity to participate.