Elvis Presley Candlelight Vigil Memorial Ceremony Marks 37 Years Since The King Died

A candlelight vigil scheduled for Saturday will honor the late Elvis Presley on the 37th anniversary of the rock legend’s death. The vigil for Elvis Presley is held every year on August 16 in Memphis at Presley’s Graceland. Elvis Presley died in 1977. Each year, devoted Elvis fans line up along the gates of Graceland to participate in what The Leaf Chronicle calls a “slow, nighttime walk to his gravesite located on the grounds of the home-turned-museum.”

The vigil is just one memorial event held during Elvis Week and it attracts Elvis Presley fans from around the globe. On the 37th anniversary of Presley’s death, Elvis Week includes an Elvis Presley memorabilia auction and the groundbreaking of a new Graceland hotel.

Earlier this year, after 37 years, genetic testing from a supposed lock of Elvis’ coveted hair purchased from a barber claimed to offer new clues into factors that may have played a roll in how Elvis died. DNA results reportedly found that Elvis Presley carried genes for a genetic heart muscle disease, according to Daily Record. The crucial variant in Elvis’ DNA revealed the actor and singer apparently suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Looking back, symptoms of the chronic disease were available, but blamed on poor diet and drug use. Presley suffered from irregular heartbeat, fainting, and high blood pressure. The Guardian reported this spring, “The new findings suggest that regardless of his diet, the iconic singer was always destined to die young.”

Apparently, chromosome 19 of Elvis Presley’s genetic material showed a variant for obesity. The 17th chromosome was said to have found a variant for glaucoma. In what could provide an excuse for Presley’s addiction to pain medication, Elvis Presley’s first chromosome supposedly contained a variant which causes extreme migraines.

In TBI Vision, one of the documentary filmmakers for the show that presented the heralded evidence about why Elvis died so young wrote:

“We found ourselves walking both legal and ethical tightropes. Laws on genetic analysis are constantly evolving and, presently, in the UK, it’s illegal to analyze the DNA of the dead without consent of the next of kin. This is not the case in most US states, so we decided to circumnavigate UK law and analyse most of our human relics there.”

Whether the hair that the filmmakers assert belonged to Elvis has been speculated about by editorial writers, but the documentary’s news made global headlines almost 37 years after Presley died. Elvis Week is holding strong almost four decades after The King died. Elvis is still so revered that, last month, his ex-wife Priscilla Presley had to plead with fans to “calm down” when they heard reports that two of Elvis’ old jets would be moved off of the grounds at Graceland.

On Saturday, 37 years after Elvis Presley died, will you be among the devoted fans at the candlelight vigil held in his honor?