Communities around the state, from Littleton to Londonderry, Manchester to Moultonborough, Northwood to Nashua, and beyond, are gearing up for Memorial Day activities.

Some are happening this weekend while others, including the city of Manchester's, are slated for Monday.

The New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton will hold its ceremony on Tuesday at 11 a.m., while its parade is scheduled for Monday.

In the Queen City, it's not your regular lineup for a usually solemn Memorial Day.

A Blackhawk helicopter. A duck race on the Merrimack River. A stage with local performers, including Mama Kicks.

A local health care organization has planned a day's worth of activities at Arms Park, hoping to incorporate the giddy spirit of summer festivals into respect of fallen heros.

Manchester Community Health Center is holding its first-ever Memorial Day Family Event from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Becky Vinson, a retired Navy commander and the new director of advancement for Manchester Community Health Center, said the event is being held to boost the visibility of the clinic. The clinic provides low-cost and no-cost health care to the poor and working poor in the Manchester area, including veterans.

“It (the event) is strictly to honor people who have sacrificed,” Vinson said. “They sacrificed for our freedom, and our capability to get together.”

The event is just one of several that will take place Monday across the state and Manchester area to honor the country's war dead.

The city's Memorial Day parade steps off of Webster and Elm at 2 p.m. It will feature seven bands from the city's high and middle schools as well as representatives of various veteran organizations, said Ron Boisvert, parade chairman and commander of the Manchester Veterans Council.

Other Manchester activities include a 9 a.m. Mass at the Old St. Joseph Cemetery on Donald Street, and a 10:30 a.m. observance at the Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Other communities mark Memorial Day with parades in Goffstown at 9 a.m., Londonderry at 9:30 a.m., and Hookset at noon Sunday. Auburn will have a celebration that includes food, a bounce house, face painting and fireworks on Sunday.

Vinson acknowledged the risks of an early summer festival. Rain clouds have bedeviled New Hampshire for most of this week, and some city residents head for the highway on Memorial Day.

But she said the price of gas may deter some from leaving the city. And interest in the event has grown steadily since she first began talking it up. Seventy crafters and food vendors have signed up. The New Hampshire Paddle Club will corral the ducks after the race. And the Manchester Transit Authority will provide a free shuttle bus between Arms Park and Veterans Park, where post-parade speeches will take place.

Boisvert said he has no problems with the event.

“It should bring more people (downtown), but we get a good crowd to begin with,” he said.

Vinson is already planning for a race to be part of next year's effort. She may even look into fireworks.

“This thing,” she said, “has evolved from being just a duck race.”

Click here for a town-by-town list of holiday weekend observances.