Bagpipes at the Cemetery - Why Is That A Thing

The girls and I took our daily walk tonight at the cemetery. We ran into some friends and they were taking down their flags on the graves. 

I was really confused by that as I thought the cemetery put up the flags on the veterans graves. But as we walked, we saw about six different people pulling down their flags and the flag poles! Trucks were pulling out of the cemetery with flag poles hanging out the back. I was a bit confused by that. 

We then get to one end of the cemetery and we start to hear a bagpipe as we get closer, there was a lone man playing  a bagpipe. He was in an orange flagger jacket with reflective tape on the back. He wasn't wearing anything Scottish, so it was a bit confusing, but he played all the military songs and some hymns. 

Every year when we would go to my grandmothers grave, they have bagpipers and they also have free hotdogs and drinks. I thought that it was just that graveyard / cemetery that had bagpipes and I haven't seen them at others cemeteries, but we usually would go to the other family graves on the weekend before Memorial, so I guess I didn't realize that having a bagpiper was a thing at the cemetery. 

It was nice walking to the playing, but I am wondering if the city pays him or if he does it for a service. If so, how long was he there? It was just something new to me. Also, the flags were at half mast the other day when we walked and today, they were all up full. Not sure why it was that way either. Just some questions I have pondered on today. 

Hope you had a Blessed Memorial Day! 

UPDATE: My industrious oldest daughter did some research and found that during the Irish and Scottish potato famine, many immigrants came to the U.S. and would take any work they could get. The high risk jobs were more available, so they took jobs as police officers and firemen, especially in NY and Boston. Many Irish  and Scottish families are still Police and Firemen in both of those cities to this day! When one of their friends would be killed in the line of duty, they would always have bagpipes play for their kinsman, and it started to become a tradition that has carried on from that point. Thanks Princess One for looking that up for us all!