National Flag Day is June 14, 2024
“You’re the emblem of The land I love. The home of the free and the brave”
Quote by George M. Cohan
“The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written with their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history.”–Woodrow Wilson
By Christina Reed
The Hired Pen
United States—It was June 14, 1777, and the colonies were fighting hard to become a new, independent country. The assembly of colonial delegates had just finished looking at the new design for the first national flag of the nation, which wouldn’t be official for another 10 years (Constitutional Convention, May-September, 1787, Philadelphia). And, with symbolism abounding, the flag was raised for the first time. The Flag Resolution: “Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” (Marine Committee of the Second Continental Congress, Philadelphia, PA) The new flag’s instructions for laying out the stars was not set at this time, and it appears that Francis Hopkinson (an original signer, from New Jersey, of the Declaration of Independence) was responsible for setting up the design for the stars. There are 50 white stars (since July 4, 1960), which represent the 50 states of the union. And there are 13 stripes (called pales); seven red pales and six white pales, which represent the original 13 states, or British colonies. (U.S. Embassy and Consulates)
“We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity, representing our liberty.”–attributed to our country’s first president, George Washington; a Founding Father, and an American statesman, military officer, and commander of the American Continental Army.
Our country also celebrates the U.S. Army’s 249th birthday on June 14th, 2024, and its creation in 1775. The nation’s first army was largely made up of volunteers, with ties to the Continental Army, called the “Patriot” forces (supported by the French and Spanish forces), which led to the victory in the American Revolutionary War; our nation’s first army went to battle in the Revolutionary War.
America celebrated its first 100th Flag Day birthday in 1877, and a Wisconsin schoolteacher, Bernard Cigrand pulled together a group of students to observe official Flag Day ceremonies (1885) for “The Stars and Stripes,” or “Old Glory,” as some call our American flag. President Woodrow Wilson officially declared and established June 14, as Flag Day, in 1916. And, by 1949, a National Flag Day was created by an Act of Congress. Today, “National Flag Week” takes place from June 9th, 2024, as declared by President Joe Biden, and flags should be displayed on all government buildings. The U.S. President delivers an address which proclaims this special week for Americans.
The American Flag, when properly displayed (either horizontally or vertically or vertically against a wall or in a window), should have the union (the blue field of stars representing states) uppermost and to the flag’s own right. When observed from the street, the union of stars will be on the upper left. When displaying other flags, the American flag is on the left side of your porch. The Stars and Stripes is always in the upper left hand corner, as people pass by your home. Don’t hang your flag backwards, upside down, or other inappropriate ways. The flag shouldn’t touch anything below it, and there is an American flag etiquette, and the U.S. Flag Code (established on June 22, 1942 by Congress).
¡Enhorabuena!