Report by Paula Antolini, June 14, 2019, 12:39PM EDT
Happy Flag Day 2019!
“People across the United States celebrate Flag Day on June 14 each year to honor the United States flag and to commemorate the flag’s adoption. On the same day, the United States Army celebrates its birthday.”
“Although Flag Day is a nationwide observance, it is not a public holiday in many parts of the United States. It is a legal holiday in a few areas in the USA, such as Montour County in Pennsylvania.”
“The American flag, also nicknamed as “Old Glory” or “star-spangled banner”, has changed designs over the centuries. It consists of 13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars. Each of the 50 stars represents one of the 50 states in the United States and the 13 stripes represent the original 13 colonies that became the first states in the Union.” —timeanddate.com
Bethel Advocate wants you to go down Memory Lane and go back and view an awesome moment (in the video below) from the 55th Newtown Labor Day Parade 2016, where a special flag was carried….
SEE VIDEO OF THE GIANT FLAG HERE from the 52nd Annual Newtown Labor Day Parade 2013 (with actual music played during this event).
Once again, as in past years, the parade included a moving ceremony of a large historical “National Flag” that was unfurled near the flagpole at the top of Church Hill Road and then hand-carried along the parade route by numerous volunteers. The flag spanned across the road, 45-by-90-feet in size, and weighs 300 pounds, said the parade committee president Beth Caldwell.
Marc Valentine of Halifax, Massachusetts, director of The National Flag Truck program, transports the historical flag across the country. This is one of over 20 90-footers, that appears at “Official Affairs of State” and full “Honor” ceremonies, economic summits, and National Re-Dedications. The flag is from the largest collection of giant flags in the world. It is transported aboard the National Flag Truck which was donated by International Truck and Engine and assembled by volunteers at the Springfield, Ohio plant.
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HISTORY
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress replaced the British symbols of the Grand Union flag with a new design featuring 13 white stars in a circle on a field of blue and 13 red and white stripes – one for each state. Although it is not certain, this flag may have been made by the Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross, who was an official flag maker for the Pennsylvania Navy. The number of stars increased as the new states entered the Union, but the number of stripes stopped at 15 and was later returned to 13…. Read more from timeanddate.com about the history of the flag.
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