Ingloriously crammed between the summertime ’s other two bragging holidays – that would be Memorial Day and Labor Day – Flag Day does n’t tend to get much regard . Perhaps things would be unlike if we got the day off , or if there was any kind of actual glamour surrounding the holiday , perhaps the advent of a key signature Flag Day snack or cocktail ? Or maybe Flag Day just needs something simple – like a brief story – to help contextualize it against the backdrop of summer ’s better - bed vacation .
What Is Flag Day?
Before we go digging for some Flag Day dirt , it seems prudent to treat just what the holiday is in reality meant to celebrate . Every June 14th , the United States does n’t just celebrate the signal flag as a single entity ; it in reality celebrates theadoptionof the flag itself , which happened nice and other in American history – June 14 , 1777 . essentially , Flag Day is the natal day of the American fleur-de-lis . Please do n’t fete with candles and cake .
Flag Day’s Unfailing Supporters
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You ’d call up that getting a vacation to honor the most recognizable symbol of America , the Stars and Stripes , would be middling easy . Sadly , you ’d be wrong . Although the flag was adopted as the country ’s prescribed banner in1777 , it took nearly one hundred and fifty yr for it to get its own vacation , something that a set of hoi polloi exploit to make happen .
There ’s some debate over who first advise the vacation – one narrative holds that , in 1861 , Hartford , Connecticut resident George Morris suggest the thought , which then lead to a conventional observance of the day ( June 14th ) in his hometown .
Other sources exact that it was B.J. Cigrand who invented Flag Day when the schoolteacher had his Wisconsin socio-economic class celebrate it in 1885 at the Stony Hill School . Even if Cigrand did n’t really call up up the 24-hour interval , he became its poster male child ( he ’s still known as “ the Father of Flag Day ” ) and its biggest supporter , traveling around the commonwealth to claver up groups about the need for an prescribed Flag Day and other ways to be patriotic . Cigrand finally became editor program - in - chief ofAmerican Emblemmagazine , a issue devote to , well , American emblems . Later , Cigrand became the Chief Executive of the American Flag Day Association and the National Flag Day Society .
In 1893 , Pennsylvania resident ( and Benjamin Franklin descendent ) Elizabeth Duane Gillespie tried to get a state closure top that required the pin to be put on display in each of Philadelphia ’s public building .
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The next year , Flag Day was lionize in Chicago , and the highly successful outcome was repeated the twelvemonth after that . Flag Day was catching on !
In 1889 , another school teacher , New York City ’s George Balch , had his social class celebrate Flag Day on June 14th , an idea that examine pop enough to be adopted by the State Education Board of New York for the whole state .
In 1907 , the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks officially designated June 14th as Flag Day , and the fraternal order and social order has lionize it every year since ( in 1911 , they even made it required for all Lodges to observe it , that ’s how serious they are about Flag Day ) . The Elks even bear on the sitting President to give Flag Day some prescribed status , which at long last happened in 1916 .
Why Don’t We Get Flag Day Off?
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President Woodrow Wilson supply the proclamation that create the prescribed vacation we know as “ Flag Day , ” right smart back in 1916 . Yet the holiday did n’t become a national one until 1949 , when an Act of Congress turned the solar day into “ National Flag Day . ” Ever wonder why we do n’t get Flag Day off ? Because it ’s not a Union holiday , most of which are celebrated by the gloriole of a free twenty-four hour period from body of work and schoolhouse .
If you live in Pennsylvania or New York , though , your Flag Day experience might be a bit different – Pennsylvania assume Flag Day as a state holiday back in 1937 , and New York has designated the 2nd Sunday of June as the prescribed state holiday celebration of Flag Day .
The Army Connection
The masthead share its birthday with another important American institution – the United States Army , which was created as the “ American Continental Army ” by the same Second Continental Congress that passed the resolving power to take in the new pin .
Celebrating the Holiday
What ’s the best way to lionize Flag Day ? By flying your flag , of course ! The week of June 14th is officially “ National Flag Week , ” and all U.S. citizens are further to fly their flag for at least part of the flow . you may get more serious with a parade or another sport event , as long as the signal flag is present and suitably cared for and flown .
Want to really do up this Flag Day ? Go confabulate the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia or Cigrand ’s previous school in Wisconsin , which has been fully restored to reflect the sentence point during which he purportedly think up the holiday .
Other People’s Flags
America is , of course , not the only country to celebrate the universe of their flag with an prescribed Flag Day – Australia ’s Flag Day is in September , Argentina also celebrates in June , and Canada honors their own maple foliage the sidereal day after Valentine ’s Day .
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