The big Saturday parades along West Genesee Street and through Eastwood get the news cameras, but Memorial Day in Central New York has always belonged to Monday morning, when American Legion posts in places like Cazenovia, Auburn, and the western edge of Onondaga County run small ceremonies that often last longer than the bands that preceded them. Here is the plain-language guide to where to find a Monday observance in CNY on May 25, 2026, what is open, what is closed, and how to move around a region where the federal holiday hits transit, retail, and county government in completely different ways.
What is actually happening Monday morning
Most CNY residents associate the holiday with the Saturday parade circuit covered in earlier reporting. The Monday observances are quieter, often happen at cemeteries instead of main streets, and tend to be organized by American Legion or VFW posts rather than village governments. Five matter most for readers in our coverage area.
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The Eastwood Memorial Day Parade is the only Memorial Day Parade held inside the City of Syracuse and steps off at 9 a.m. Monday from 102 Nichols Avenue, finishing at Greenway Veterans Memorial Park at the corner of James and Grant. The Eastwood American Legion Post 1276 has run it for over 70 years, and the closing ceremony at Greenway honors service members killed in combat. The Pride of Syracuse, the city school district marching band, performs along the route.
Roughly 13 miles southwest, the Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery at 4069 Howlett Hill Road in the Town of Onondaga holds its annual Monday ceremony. WAER reported that the cemetery program drew more than a hundred veterans, Gold Star families, and community members in past years, with a bugler playing Taps, bagpipes playing Amazing Grace, and three rifle volleys. WSYR confirmed the 2026 ceremony in a May 20 announcement that also featured Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon. The cemetery sits inside the broader Onondaga County Parks system at the same Howlett Hill Road address.
In Cazenovia, the Madison County village 25 minutes east of Syracuse, American Legion Post 88 at 26 Chenango Street runs the village program every year. The published pattern starts with a color-guard step off from the high school grounds at Emory Avenue and Forman Street at 10:30 a.m., a ceremony at Memorial Park on Albany Street starting at 11 a.m. that includes a public reading of John McCrae’s 1915 poem In Flanders Fields, and a second observance at the post’s Garden of Honor at 12:30 p.m. The 2026 grand marshal and keynote speaker were not publicly announced as of mid-May per Post 88’s calendar.
Auburn, the Cayuga County seat 27 miles west of Syracuse, runs its observance differently. The Auburn wreath laying takes place at Veterans Memorial Park on Genesee Street at noon Monday, after a morning parade. The park is the site of the city’s WWI memorial photographed below.
Skaneateles runs the longest of the village programs because the route includes cemetery stops. Skaneateles closures along Jordan Street, the village stretch of West Genesee Street, and the West Lake Road approach to Shotwell Park typically run from 10:30 a.m. until the closing service ends, which is later than the corresponding village programs in Camillus or Manlius. The procession passes through Lakeview Cemetery and ends at Shotwell Park at the north end of Skaneateles Lake.
Two other observances round out the Monday slate. The Geddes and Solvay parade steps off at 10 a.m. from Woods Road Memorial Park, jointly sponsored by the Town of Geddes and Village of Solvay. And Manlius runs its longer Monday route through the village center starting at 10 a.m., with cemetery stops that extend the program past the typical 45-minute mark a Camillus or Liverpool parade hits.
What is closed Monday
The federal holiday hits in waves. USPS confirms Memorial Day falls on Monday, May 26, 2026 as an observed federal holiday, and the agency does not deliver mail or operate retail post office windows that day. Note that the calendar date is May 25, 2026, the fourth Monday of May per the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, and the 2026 observance follows that pattern. Priority Mail Express remains the only delivery class that can run on the holiday with prior arrangement.
Onondaga County government follows the federal calendar. The county clerk’s office, DMV, and county courts will be closed. Most Onondaga County libraries are closed Saturday through Monday, May 23 through May 25, 2026, a three-day shutdown that is wider than the single-day federal closure. Public school districts are out for the long weekend, and most municipal town halls in Camillus, DeWitt, Manlius, Salina, Cicero, and Geddes are closed Monday with their usual emergency dispatch channels still running through 911.
Most national and regional banks observe the federal holiday. Branches of Community Bank, M&T, KeyBank, Pathfinder, and Solvay Bank do not open Monday. ATMs run normally and mobile and online banking work the same as any other day. Federal Reserve and Fedwire are closed, which means ACH and wire transfers initiated Monday do not post until Tuesday.
What is open
Grocery stores are the biggest exception to the federal closure pattern. Wegmans will operate normal store hours of 6 a.m. to midnight on Memorial Day, with pharmacy departments cut back to 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and some specialty departments closed. The Wegmans corporate guidance recommends checking specific departments such as the catering desk, sub shop, and pharmacy at the local store before driving over. Wegmans operates ten stores across Onondaga, Cayuga, and Madison counties.
Hannaford stores will be open Memorial Day with typical holiday hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., though hours can vary by location. Tops Markets, Price Chopper, Aldi, Trader Joe’s, BJ’s Wholesale, and Costco will also open with at least partial hours. Costco’s pattern in recent years has been a full closure on Memorial Day, an exception within the warehouse club category, while BJ’s and Sam’s Club stay open.
Centro buses, the public transit network covering Syracuse and Onondaga County, runs a reduced service pattern on Memorial Day. Centro runs a Sunday or holiday schedule Monday, which means fewer routes and less frequent service compared with a normal weekday. Riders dependent on weekday-only routes for medical appointments or shift work should plan alternative transportation. The OnTrack and Call-a-Bus paratransit services follow the holiday schedule as well.
Syracuse municipal parking is the easiest break for ceremony-goers. Parking at all Syracuse city meters is free on Memorial Day Monday. That covers downtown, the Westcott Street commercial district, Tipperary Hill, and the Eastwood corridor where the city’s only Memorial Day parade runs.
Onondaga County Parks operates as usual on the holiday. Onondaga County Parks reservation system continues to take bookings for shelters and pavilions through the long weekend, and the parks system operates between 9 a.m. and dusk per its standard May through October schedule. Onondaga Lake Park, Highland Forest, and the Carrier Park complex remain open. Park-system swimming pools were not scheduled to open on Memorial Day in 2026 because the seasonal pool calendar runs on a separate timeline that begins later in June.
Practical guidance for ceremony attendees
For readers planning to attend a Monday ceremony, three logistical points are worth front-loading.
First, the village programs in Skaneateles, Cazenovia, Auburn, and Manlius are longer than the Saturday parade format and include readings, prayers, and rifle volleys that ask for silence. Strollers, dogs, and large groups should hang back from the immediate ceremony footprint at the cemetery or memorial park. The Cazenovia program in particular has historically observed the public reading of In Flanders Fields with strict silence.
Second, road closures Monday differ from Saturday. Skaneateles closures along Jordan Street, the village stretch of West Genesee Street, and the West Lake Road approach to Shotwell Park typically run from 10:30 a.m. until the closing service ends. Drivers headed to Skaneateles for a different reason such as boat-launch access or restaurant brunch should plan to come from the south on Route 41 rather than the east on US 20.
Third, parking near the Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Howlett Hill Road fills up early on Memorial Day Monday. The cemetery has limited on-site parking. Arriving by 9 a.m. for a ceremony that typically begins around 10 a.m. is the safe pattern.
The grocery and pharmacy details matter for caregivers and parents with young children who cannot wait until Tuesday for refills or supplies. The 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wegmans pharmacy window is the narrowest in the region; the Tops pharmacy at Western Lights and the Hannaford pharmacy in Camillus operate on extended Memorial Day hours that run later into the afternoon. CVS and Walgreens follow location-specific reduced hours.
Why Monday matters in Central New York
The Monday observance pattern in CNY is older than the federal holiday calendar that puts the day at the end of May. Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, began in the years right after the Civil War as community gatherings at cemeteries to place flowers and flags on the graves of Union soldiers. The Cazenovia, Skaneateles, and Auburn programs trace their patterns to that decoration tradition. The Saturday parade circuit is the newer addition, designed to allow bigger crowds and longer routes without conflicting with the cemetery programs the legion posts run on the holiday itself.
The split is the reason CNY has more Memorial Day observances per capita than most metro regions of similar size. Onondaga, Madison, and Cayuga counties together host more than 30 distinct Memorial Day programs across Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and the Monday slate is the one most directly connected to the holiday’s origin as a day to honor service members killed in combat. The Eastwood parade in Syracuse, the Onondaga County cemetery program on Howlett Hill Road, and the Cazenovia and Auburn ceremonies are the four that draw the largest Monday attendance based on legion post estimates from prior years.
If you are choosing one Monday event to attend, the Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery program at 4069 Howlett Hill Road is the regional anchor with public officials and Gold Star families present. If you are picking based on travel time from downtown Syracuse, Eastwood at 9 a.m. is the closest. If you are looking for the most traditional cemetery service with poetry, prayer, and a small village setting, Cazenovia Memorial Park at 11 a.m. fits the bill.
Sources
- Eastwood Neighborhood Association: Memorial Day Parade
- CNY Signal: Memorial Day 2026 across CNY parade and ceremony coverage
- WSYR 570: Annual Memorial Day Ceremony at Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery
- WAER: Central New Yorkers reflect on duty, loss, and legacy during Memorial Day Ceremony
- Cazenovia Area Chamber: Events calendar
- USPS 2026 Holiday Schedule
- MSN/Syracuse.com: Memorial Day 2026 what is open, what is closed
- Today: Grocery stores open on Memorial Day 2026 with holiday hours
- Holiday Shopping Hours: Hannaford Memorial Day hours
- Onondaga County Parks: News page
- Auburn NY Parks and Recreation Department
- Wikimedia Commons: Lakeview Cemetery in Skaneateles (Doncram, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons: WWI memorial Auburn (Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0)
