Festivals & Expos
  • This event has passed. Check out other things to do instead.

Honor fallen service members at Boston’s Memorial Day Flag Garden

Over 37,000 flags on Boston Common honor Massachusetts fallen service members.

American flags on the Common honor fallen Massachusetts service members from the Revolutionary War to present day. David L. Ryan

For the 14th Memorial Day weekend, the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund (MMHF) and its volunteers will create a garden of flags on Boston Common that’ll stay throughout the long weekend.

The more than 37,000 flags in the Memorial Day Flag Garden represent every Massachusetts person who has fallen in the line of service since the Revolutionary War. The result is a sea of American flags that takes over a huge swath of the Common, turning heads and honoring the meaning of Memorial Day—remembering lost service members. The garden is located by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a Civil War tribute.

Advertisement:

“It is wonderful and heartening every year to see the growing number of volunteers, particularly to see as we are in and out of COVID, to have hundreds of people showing up,” Steve Kerrigan, co-founder of the Massachusetts Military Heroes fund, told CBS News in 2022.

This year, the MMHF will partner on construction of the garden with Home Base, a partnership of the Red Sox Foundation and Mass General that helps veterans and their families as they heal from invisible wounds like traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress.

Those interested in volunteering with the creation or maintenance of the garden can register here. MMHF’s other event sponsors include John Hancock, Bank of America, Arbella Insurance, and the Patriots Foundation.

See More Events