To call to remembrance by a special act or observance; to celebrate with honor and solemnity; to honor, as a person or event, by some act of respect or affection, intended to preserve the remembrance of the person or event; as, to commemorate the sufferings and dying love of our Savior by the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; to commemorate the Declaration of Independence by the observance of the Fourth of July
To commemorate an important event or person means to remember them by means of a special action, ceremony, or specially created object. One room contained a gallery of paintings commemorating great moments in baseball history = celebrate + commemoration commemorations com·memo·ra·tion the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. to do something to show that you remember and respect someone important or an important event in the past (past participle of commemorare, from com- ( COM-) + memorare )
call to remembrance; keep alive the memory of someone or something, as in a ceremony; "We remembered the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz"; "Remember the dead of the First World War"