See tens of thousands of flags on Boston Common

The flags honor fallen service members.

Miriella Gong, 4, from Quincy held flags for her mother, Han, as they planted them on Boston Common in 2021. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

By Natalie Gale

1 minute to read

This Memorial Day weekend for the Memorial Day Flag Garden, volunteers will once again place over 37,000 flags on Boston Common — one for every Massachusetts service member who has lost his or her life in the line of service since the Revolutionary War. The sea of American flags stretches below the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a Civil War tribute.

The event is sponsored by the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund and 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.

As part of the flag garden, there will also be a name reading ceremony on Thursday, May 23 at 10:30 a.m. to kick off the weekend. During the ceremony, families of Massachusetts service members who have died in the line of service from September 11, 2001 and onward will read the name of their loved one in front of the flag garden.

The initiative relies on the work of volunteers to plant the flags on May 22, watch the flags in shifts all weekend, and take down the flags at the end of the day on May 27. Interested volunteers can visit the website.