Breaking news (5/30/2019): Mayor Erin Stewart has announced that the Memorial Day parade has been cancelled due to rain.
New Britain will honor Memorial Day with ceremonies at war memorials and a parade held, as traditionally, on May 30, 2019.
The New Britain community has a long tradition for how to honor veterans on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, holding ceremonies on the traditional days of remembrance, rather than on the Monday of the three day weekend for each day.
So, New Britain’s official celebration of Memorial Day, including its parade, is on May 30th. The parade will begin at 6:00pm.
War memorials are placed throughout New Britain, remembering those who served, and especially those who gave their lives, in different wars. The city has long held to the tradition of holding separate memorial ceremonies at each of the monuments, reading the names of those who made the ultimate sacrifice and remembering where they fought and what they did.
Before Memorial Day, itself, a solemn ceremony is held at Fairview Cemetery Veterans Section. The ceremony will be held this year on May 23rd at 6:00pm in Fairview Cemetery Section 18, which is in the back right part of Cemetery, entering from Smalley Street.
The Memorial Day commemoration ceremonies on May 30th will held at,
- 8:00am at the General John Patterson Memorial on East Street, near the corner of Allen Street.
- 8:30am at the Spanish American War Memorial at Willow Brook Park at 635 South Main Street, near the corner of Veterans Drive.
- 8:45am at the Vietnam Memorial at Willow Brook Park, 635 South Main Street. The Memorial is on the southwest corner of Veterans Stadium, best accessed from the stadium parking lot.
- 9:15am at the Sherrod E. Skinner Memorial, at the corner of Corbin Avenue and Lincoln Street.
- 9:45am at the Israel Putnam Stone in Walnut Hill Park
- 10:00am at the World War I Memorial Monument in Walnut Hill Park.
- 10:30am at the General Casimir Pulaski Monument and General Tadeusz Kosciuszko Monument at Pulaski Park at the corner of Broad and Burritt Streets.
- 11:00am at the Civil War, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Iraq and Afghanistan War Memorials at Central Park.
- 11:30am at the 65th Infantry Regiment Borinqueneers Monument on Beaver Street near the corner of LaSalle and Washington Streets and Farmington Avenue.
- 11:50am at the Belviedere Area World War II Memorial at Campbell Square at the corner of Stanley Street and Hillcrest Avenue.
- 12:15pm at the Captain Brian S. Letendre U.S.M.C. Memorial at the corner of Pendleton Road and Sunnyslope Drive
Between the Central Park and Borinqueneers Monument ceremonies, the Suburban Women’s Club holds a “Flags on the Green” ceremony, with the Marine Corps League at 105 Franklin Square.
At 6:00, the Memorial Day Parade will begin at the corner of Burritt and Broad Streets.
Parade participants assemble at Burritt and Broad Streets at 5:00pm. At 6:00pm, the parade traditionally marches the 2.2 mile route that runs:
- Down Broad Street to Main Street, then
- Down Main Street,
- Continuing through downtown, and
- Ending at Franklin Square in front of the New Britain Courthouse.
The 2019 parade is planned to include marching bands from New Britain High School, Slade Middle School, Pulaski Middle School, HALS Academy and the DiLoreto School. The New Britain Police Department, New Britain Fire Department and New Britain EMS are to march in the parade, as well as fife and drum corps, the Sphinx Temple Motor Patrol and other organizations.
