Bob McCarty Writes

It’s another Memorial Day weekend, and you find yourself struggling with a lack of knowledge about how to display the U.S. flag properly. Perhaps you should review this brief summary of the U.S. Flag Code:

Memorial Day is a flag holiday — one of 17 days specifically designated in the code on which citizens are encouraged to display the flag, if they’re not in the habit of doing so daily.

Manner of Display

• The flag should be hoisted briskly at dawn and lowered ceremoniously at dusk. The flag should be displayed at night only if it is lighted dramatically, as from below. To fly the flag at half-staff, raise it briskly to the top of the pole, keep it there for a moment and then lower it to half-staff. Before taking the flag down for the day, return it briefly to the top of the pole.

• The flag should not be displayed on days when the weather is inclement, except when an all-weather flag is used.

• When the flag is displayed from a staff projecting horizontally or at an angle, the union (the blue rectangle on which stars are embroidered or fastened) should be at the staff’s peak, unless the flag is being flown at half-staff.

• When displayed horizontally against a wall the union should be to the left of the observer, looking from the street or in the audience. The same holds when a flag is displayed horizontally in a window. When the flag is displayed vertically against a wall, the union is also to the observer’s left. Likewise, when a flag is hung vertically in a window.

• When displayed directly over a street, the flag is hung vertically, and it is centered in the street with the union aligned with the north or east. In a north/south street, this means the flag is hung across the street with the union on the east side of the street. Conversely, on an east/west street, the union is on the north side of the street.

• For visual reference on all of this, visit the American Legion Web site.

To read more about the proper display of the U.S. flag, read this article from Popular Mechanics.