What is Flag Day?

Flag Day in the United States is observed every year on June 14. It commemorates the day in 1777 when the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, adopted the Flag Resolution that established the design of the first American national flag: thirteen alternate red and white stripes and a union of thirteen white stars on a blue field representing a new constellation.

The first widely recognized observance of June 14 as a flag holiday was organized in 1885 by Bernard J. Cigrand, a 19-year-old schoolteacher in Waubeka, Wisconsin, who had his students celebrate the flag's birthday and who spent the rest of his life advocating for a national observance. State and local observances spread through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly in Pennsylvania, New York, and other states with strong patriotic traditions. President Woodrow Wilson formally proclaimed June 14 as Flag Day on May 30, 1916, asking Americans to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies.

President Harry S. Truman signed Public Law 81-203 on August 3, 1949, establishing National Flag Day on June 14 each year, but the law made it a national observance rather than a federal public holiday. Flag Day is therefore not one of the eleven federal holidays listed at 5 U.S.C. section 6103, which means federal offices, banks, and most schools remain open. Pennsylvania is the only state that recognizes Flag Day as a paid state holiday for its employees.

National Flag Week, the calendar week containing June 14, was added by joint congressional resolution in 1966 to extend the period of observance, and the Pause for the Pledge of Allegiance, a one-minute simultaneous Pledge recited at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on Flag Day, was created by Public Law 99-54 in 1985 and is centered annually at Fort McHenry in Baltimore.

Customary observances include flying flags on homes and public buildings, parades, school programs, naturalization ceremonies (USCIS frequently schedules special citizenship ceremonies on Flag Day), and the formal retirement of worn or damaged flags by veterans organizations such as the American Legion and the Boy Scouts of America. The U.S. Army, founded by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, also celebrates its birthday on the same date, two years before the flag itself was adopted, which adds a military layer to the observance.