President-elect Joe Biden spent the night before his inauguration honoring the more than 400,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19.
During a Tuesday ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial, Biden said in order for the country to "heal, we must remember. It's hard sometimes to remember, but that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a nation. That's why we're here today."
The memorial's Reflecting Pool was surrounded by 400 lights, representing the victims of the pandemic. Other landmarks across the United States were also lit up to pay tribute to the dead, including the Space Needle in Seattle and Empire State Building in New York City.
Biden was joined by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and her husband, Doug Emhoff. Harris also spoke, saying that for months, Americans have "grieved by ourselves. Tonight, we grieve and begin healing together. Though we may be physically separated, we, the American people, are united in spirit and my abiding hope, my abiding prayer, is that we emerge from this ordeal with a new wisdom: to cherish simple moments, to imagine new possibilities, and to open our hearts just a little bit more to one another." Catherine Garcia