While Saturday marks the date of a military parade in Washington, D.C. Army’s 250th anniversary, which coincides with Trump’s 79th birthday, it also marks the observance of a lesser-known holiday.
Celebrated each year on June 14, Flag Day commemorates the 1777 approval of a national flag design by the Continental Congress.
“Resolved, that the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation,” the resolution read.
That flag was carried into battle in the Battle of the Brandywine, according to the VA, and slowly came into more regular use as the American Revolution continued.
The holiday was later established by federal law in 1949, though observances preceded the official holiday by decades, including one in 1891 at a Philadelphia house of Betsy Ross.
As to how the day of observance came into practice, the situation gets a bit murky. In fact, multiple states, including New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, all make claims to having originated the commemoration of Flag Day, according to the VA.
New York’s claim — dubbed the “most recognized claim,” by the VA — came in 1889 when a city principal had his school hold patriotic ceremonies to observe the anniversary of the resolution, the VA said.
But the fervor for the flag that exists today has strong roots in the Civil War, when flag bearers were regarded with particularly high honor.
At the Betsy Ross House, a flag bearing a circle of 13 stars for each of the colonies is flown. And at a family farm near Loring, Kansas, 38 stars are painted on the flag on its barn, the number of states when the barn was built in 1884.
Those throwback versions and others are still around, but the 50-star flag is never far from view. It has been patterned on a pro golfer’s shorts, colored onto the roof of a business, and brandished during confrontations at public demonstrations.
The theory over what inspired the flag is also hotly-debated, with George Washington’s family coat of arms and the flag of the British East India company both floated as potential points of inspiration. Of course, many Americans remember the story of Betsy Ross sewing the flag during the American Revolution in 1776, but historians have cast doubt upon that origin story as well.
Flag Day is not a national holiday in the United States, which means government offices like courthouses and United States Post Offices are open. But, it still inspires parades, essay contests and ceremonies throughout the United States, according to Military.com.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/Azmh1lc
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