June 14 – “Happy Flag Day”

I’ve been reading up on the origins of Flag Day.  Not that it’s a problem for us to fly the flag around here.  Our biggest issue is remembering to do it on the appropriate days.  As I have found out, the reason for the day is to commemorate the anniversary of the official adoption of what we have come to know as the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States.  That actually happened in 1777. 

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress replaced the British symbols of the Grand Union flag with a new design featuring thirteen white stars in a circle on a field of blue and 13 red and white stripes – one for each state.  Whether or not Betsy Ross (seamstress who was the official flag maker for the Pennsylvania Navy) actually made the first flag is not really certain, but it sure makes for a good story.  The number of stars increased as new states entered the Union, but after fifteen, it became apparent that the stripes were making the whole thing unwieldy.  They stopped at fifteen, then eventually returned to the original thirteen.

Flash forward to 1885.  The country was already celebrating July 4^th as its birthday.  That year a schoolteacher in Wisconsin had the idea for his students to observe June 14 as the Flag’s birthday, since it had been adopted 108 years before.  Over the next years that teacher wrote newspaper articles and spoke publicly and apparently enthusiastically to advocate making June 14^th “Flag Birthday.”

In 1889 a kindergarten teacher in New York picked up on the idea and planned some appropriate ceremonies for his school.  Guess he knew more of “the right people,” because later on the State Board of Education in New York adopted the day for schools in the state.  In 1891 the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia picked it up and the next year the New York branch of the Sons of the Revolution joined in.

In 1893 the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America (How’s that for a mouthful of a name?) requested that the mayor of Philadelphia, all those in authority, and all private citizens display the flag on June 14^th.  Part of that recommendation was that school children be assembled for appropriate exercises and that each child be given a small flag.  Other societies joined in, and finally the superintendent of public schools of Philadelphia declared that Flag Day exercises would be held on June 14, 1893 in Independence Square.  School kids came, small flags in hand, patriotic songs were sung, and speeches were made.

The governor of New York took it a step further in 1894 when he directed that the flag be displayed on all public buildings on Flag Day.  Over in Chicago the first public school celebration of Flag Day there drew more than 300,000 children to five different local parks. 

After thirty years of celebrations organized at the state and local levels, the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 – June 14 – was officially established by President Woodrow Wilson on May 30^th, 1916.  Finally, on August 3, 1949, President Harry Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14^th of each year as National Flag Day.

So there’s your history for the day.  Suffice it to say, I remembered to put ours out.  Did you?

Ephesians 4:2-3 says, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

Father, thank you for the things our flag represents: purity, courage, unity.  All things you think highly of as well.  Amen.