What is Flag Day?
Flag Day falls on June 14th each year and is a great opportunity for us to celebrate the adoption of the United States flag. It marks the date in 1777 when the U.S. first adopted the stars and stripes as its official flag.
On this day, Congress passed a resolution that decreed the U.S. Flag would have:
13 Stripes, alternating red and white, and 13 Stars, white in a blue field.
There were thirteen stars and stripes representing the thirteen colonies that had rebelled against British rule and fought for their independence. Since then, the number of stars has changed to represent the number of states, but the number of stripes has always remained the same. (Apart from the 23 years when 15 were used!)
We’ve celebrated Flag Day for over 100 years after President Woodrow Wilson made it an official holiday in 1916. Many people mark this special date by attending special events with many flags on display!
How is Flag Day celebrated?
While Flag Day isn’t a federal holiday, it doesn’t stop many of us from celebrating this special date across the country.
Many towns and cities across the nation hold exciting Flag Day parades, which can be an amazing sight with all the flags flying around. The largest of these is held in Troy, New York, with approximately 50,000 spectators showing up yearly!
Aside from these parades, the week of June 14th is designated as National Flag Week. During this period, citizens are encouraged to fly their flags at home, while all government and official buildings will also display the stars and stripes.
10 Amazing Facts about the United States Flag
The American flag is a special symbol representing our values as a nation, so it’s no surprise that it has a fascinating history. Here are ten of our favorite facts about the famous flag:
There have been 27 different versions of the American Flag.
The original version of the flag looked very different from the flag we have today. After starting with just thirteen stars, we now have fifty stars on the flag, with one added every time a new state was added to the union. However, the number of stripes on the flag has always remained the same to remember the 13 colonies that initially made up the United States way back in 1877!
The current flag design is the only one to last for over 50 years.
While the flag has changed many times since it was first adopted, the current design has been in place since 1960. This is likely because no new states have been adopted since this time – with the final form admitted into the union being Hawaii back in 1959!
A teenager designed today’s flag.
It was designed in 1958 by a 17-year-old high school student, Robert G. Heft, who lived in Lancaster, Ohio. He created the flag as part of a competition to design the next flag of the United States, and President Eisenhower chose it out of over 1,500 designs that were shown to him!
The Founding Fathers explicitly chose the colors of the flag.
It was no accident that the U.S. flag ended up with red, white, and blue as its colors. Red was chosen to represent valor and hardiness, blue to define justice and vigilance, and white to represent purity and innocence.
There are six U.S. Flags on the moon – but only five are still standing.
You’ll have seen Neil Armstrong’s famous flag planted into the moon’s surface, but there have been five more trips to the moon since then. Apollo missions 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 successfully made it to the moon’s surface, and each planted its flag. Sadly, in the years since Neil Armstrong made history by being the first man to step foot on the moon, many believe that the banner fell over as they left the moon’s surface!
When a flag is badly damaged, it should be disposed of in a “dignified manner.”
To show respect to the flag, any flag damaged to the point where it can’t be repaired should be disposed of in a dignified manner. Unfortunately, one of the most common ways to do this is to burn the flag, and many towns across America hold flag-burning ceremonies on Memorial Day.
Flags can be flown 24 hours a day – so long as they’re correctly displayed.
While many believe flags can only be flown from sunrise to sunset, they can be washed 24 hours a day as long as they are adequately lit overnight. But, of course, this doesn’t apply only during “inclement weather,” such as in heavy rain, wind, or snow.
There’s a proper way to view the flag.
According to Federal flag laws and regulations, the proper way to view a flag is by facing it with your right hand over your heart. This applies to events and parades, as well as during the raising and lowering of the flag.
You’re not supposed to wear the flag.
Who doesn’t love getting decked out in stars and stripes clothing for the Fourth of July celebrations? But, according to the Flag Code, we’re not supposed to use the flag design on clothes, bedding, or other decorations.
A school teacher invented Flag Day.
Way back in 1885, a 19-year-old school teacher, Bernard J. CiGrand, asked his students to write essays about the symbolism of the American Flag. Over the next fifty years, he campaigned to make Flag Day a national holiday for us all to celebrate!
