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SAN MARCOS PUBLIC LIBRARY 625 E. HOPKINS ST. 512-393-8200
Q. I love seeing the flags flying downtown on patriotic holidays. Flag Day was last week. The Fourth of July comes up next. It occurred to me that I know nothing about the history of Flag Day. Why is it in June? When was it first celebrated? I have always loved A.
A. I have always loved seeing those flags, too. Who puts those flags up? The local Kiwanis club puts the flags out in front of businesses who help fund their service projects. I am delighted to say that for at least 30 years, the library has received a generous Kiwanis donation to fund our summer reading program for children.
I found two good sources. Let’s start with information from the most concise: “The World Book Encyclopedia.” It begins, “Flag Day is celebrated on June 14 in memory of the day in 1777 when the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States. “Flag Day was first widely observed in 1877 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the selection of the flag. President Woodrow Wilson established Flag Days as an annual national celebration in 1917. In 1949, President Harry S. Truman officially recognized June 14 as Flag Day by signing the National Flag Day Bill.” My second source is a favor
My second source is a favorite of mine, “The American Book of Days.” It provides a more detailed history: “The creation of an American nation from the 13 colonies that rebelled against Great Britain in 1776 was not easily accomplished. Prior to their decision to end their connection with the mother country, the colonies had enjoyed separate existences and had established few intercolonial ties. However, their common struggle against British Rule brought the colonies more than independence. Gradually they acquired a sense of national identity. As a symbol of this new unity, the former British colonies adopted a national flag on June 14, 1777.
“During the initial battles of the American Revolution, the rebels fought under the banners of the individual colonies or even those of local militia companies. For example, the colonials from Massachusetts marched under banners depicting a pine tree emblem, while some units of minutemen in Pennsylvania and Virginia gave their allegiance to a flag bearing a coiled rattlesnake and the warning ‘Don’t Tread on Me.’ “Such a great diversity of flags reflected a similar lack of unity in the rebels’ efforts against Great Britain. The first ‘national’ flag was the Continental Colors, also known as the Grand Union Flag. It became so on a purely unofficial basis. Commander in Chief George Washington designated it to be flown to celebrate the formation of the Continental army, which was announced on New Year’s Day in 1776. “The flag, with 13 alternating red and white stripes and a field bearing the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, may have been in use as early as the fall of 1775. It was an appropriate selection since the colonists had not yet declared independence, and the presence of the British Union design in the field symbolized many Americans’ hope of eventual reconciliation with Britain.
However, the Continental Congress’s declaration of independence in July made the banner obsolete. Concerned with the business of conducting war against Great Britain, the Continental Congress did not give its attention to the matter of an official national banner until almost a year after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Then on June 17, 1777, Congress resolved: ‘That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union (field) be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.’”
