Usually a barbecue, or at least gathering with friends and family. A boat outing is the ideal Memorial Day. It’s not like a huge thing that you have to have Memorial Day plans though. It’s very lowkey compared to other holidays. It’s theoretically an America-coded holiday but no one wears red white and blue or does fireworks. Mostly it’s just a chance to do whatever you want to do with a three-day weekend right when it’s nice and warm but not too hot outside.

Also by the way, Memorial Day is the spring version of Labor Day in the fall. They’re like twin holidays such that people often call one by the other’s name. They’re both vaguely patriotic but not particularly meaningful to most* people, they both lack rituals and decorations, and everyone appreciates them both anyway just to have an excuse to be off work on a Monday at a time of the year otherwise sparse in holidays.

*Members of military families may beg to differ with regard to Memorial Day. And I have occasionally heard someone take the opportunity to applaud laborers and labor movements throughout the country’s history around Labor Day.