Mourn Arms

I love Patriots' Day. Spring is in the air and the leaves are just about to burst from their buds; there are parades with marching bands, drum-and-fife corps, and lots of bagpipers; the kids wave their flags and enjoy a day off school; and we all remember a bit of American history. Minutemen groups march in to Concord, including the minutemen from my town. In fact, many people walk with the minutemen along the same roads and paths that the colonial patriots took over 200 years ago. This year, my daughter and husband made the two-hour trek into Concord. (They're somewhere in that crowd on the other side of the river.)

This day commemorates the beginning of the American Revolution, and as patriotic as this day is for locals, we still remember the British soldiers who died at the Old North Bridge , where the first shot fired by the patriots was described at the "shot heard 'round the world" by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

There is an unmarked grave of fallen British soldiers at the south end of the bridge, and each year reenactors* perform British Mourn Arms Ceremony. It really was quite poignant, particularly the version of Taps, played with an echo, by the U.S. Air Force Band.

The day wasn't all seriousness, of course. More photos (mostly parade) can be found here.


*Most (maybe all?) of the British reenactors are actually Americans.