Brigid Bishop on Life, Love and The Art of Living

Flag Day – A Holiday Americans Should Celebrate!

Our Flag is one of the iconic symbols of Freedom and Liberty, many people have died fighting under our flag and many have dedicated significant parts of their lives to make sure we retained the right to live free under it. 

If you are an American, today should be a day that you are proudly displaying this symbol at your home and office (and possibly even your vehicle).

Our flag has a proud and glorious history, think of the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner!  It always brings tears to my eyes to hear that song.

As Americans, we have every right to be proud of our culture and our nation and what better way to show our American Pride than by flying our flags!!

To properly display our American Flag keep this in mind, the flag should be flown from sunrise to sunset, in the morning raise the flag energetically, at sunset, lower it slowly and respectfully and always raise and lower it respectfully. 

The flag should not be flown at night without a light shining on it.  The flag should not be flown in rain or nasty weather. 

After a tragedy or death, the flag is flown at half staff for thirty days, it’s called half staff on land and half mast on a ship. 

When flown vertically on a pole, the stars and the blue field, the union, are at the top and at the end of the pole.  The American Flag is always flown at the top of the pole, your state flag and any other flags fly below it. 

NEVER ALLOW THE AMERICAN FLAG TO TOUCH THE GROUND, NEVER!!

Fold your flag when storing it.

When your flag is old and has seen better days, turn it over to the Boy Scouts or your local chapter of the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), for proper disposal, (burning or burying).

The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics
By Francis Scott Key 1814



Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

The History of Flag Day