Visitors and residents will spend Memorial Day with barbecues, biking, hiking and perhaps even mushroom hunting.

For generations, the community of Northport has marked the date with somber reflection.

“It’s been done here for years,” said Northport resident George Anderson, who has served on the Leelanau Township Cemetery committee for at least 20 years. “I remember my mother talking about it. (She said) as a little girl, they would march down the street to the Grand Army of the Republic,” a reference to soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

Work begins months in advance for the annual ceremony.

“We take it very seriously. (The program) is done soberly and with a great deal of respect,” Anderson said.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868, by Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and observed on May 30 of that year when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. It is now celebrated in every state on the last Monday in May as a result of the National Holiday Act, which ensured a three-day holiday for federal employees.

America’s veterans organizations, citing a loss in the reverence and respect for the holiday, have lobbied for passage of legislation that would remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day .

In 1999, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, introduced a bill to restore the traditional day of observance back to May 30. To date, no further legislative developments have been recorded in this area.

No “act of Congress” is needed for the Northport community to mark Memorial Day, decoration day, like it was in the old days.

The site of the 10:30 a.m. program is the Leelanau Township Cemetery at Northport. In case of inclement weather, the venue will be moved to Northport School. The ceremony will include patriotic music by the Village Voices and Northport Community Band, directed by Ann and Ken Bloomquist, respectively. Northport area resident Jerry Dennis will give a dedicatory speech, which will be followed by a salute to the Gulf wars. Northport Girl Scout and Brownie troops will participate in the color guard along with members of Boy Scout Troop 131 of Suttons Bay.

Veterans whose lives were or are part of Northport will be recognized in an Armed Forces Salute with representatives from each of the wars since the War Between the States. The servicemen are Samuel A. McClelland (Civil War); Jonas Shawandase (Spanish American War); Oscar Anderson (World War I); Gilbert A. Deibel (World War II); Alan Middleton (Korean War); William A. Brendel (Vietnam); Reginald C. (Clayton) Dean (first Gulf War and Iraq War); and Brian Porter, currently stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base, Panama City, Fla.

“It’s an old, rural, American Memorial Day … to remember not only those who have fallen, but all people,” Anderson said.