Learn Flag Protocol
Know how to fly, fold, and retire the American flag correctly in every situation.
Worth +8 to Patriotism
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The steps
Tick them as you go. Your progress is kept even if you leave.
- Step 15 min
Learn the everyday display rules
Four rules cover almost every situation you will actually face.
Sunrise to sunset is the default. The flag may be displayed twenty-four hours a day if it is properly illuminated after dark.
Raise it briskly. Lower it ceremoniously.
It should not be displayed in bad weather unless it is an all-weather flag.
When flown with other flags on the same halyard, the U.S. flag goes at the peak. When flown with state or other flags on separate staffs of the same height, it goes to its own right - the viewer’s left - and is raised first and lowered last.
- Step 24 min
Learn the half-staff days, and the one that catches everyone
Memorial Day is the one most Americans get wrong, and it is visible from the street all day.
Memorial Day is the exception. The flag flies at half-staff from sunrise until noon only, then is raised to full-staff until sunset. Half-staff mourns the dead; raising it at noon says the nation lives on.
Half-staff for the entire day: Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15, unless it falls on Armed Forces Day), Patriot Day (September 11), and National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (December 7).
To half-staff a flag correctly, raise it to the peak first, then lower it to the half-staff position. Raise it to the peak again before lowering it for the day.
- Step 34 min
Learn what never to do with it
These are the ones that cause real offence, and most are easy to do by accident.
Never let it touch the ground, the floor, water, or anything beneath it.
Never display it union down except as a signal of dire distress.
Never use it as apparel, bedding, drapery, or as a covering for a ceiling.
Never place anything on it or attach any mark, insignia, word or drawing to it.
The Flag Code carries no penalty. It is a statement of respect, not an enforcement regime - which is rather the point.
- Step 44 min
Know how to retire a worn flag
Most people quietly bin one because nobody ever told them the alternative.
A flag that is no longer a fitting emblem for display should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning. That is the Flag Code’s own wording.
You do not have to do it yourself. American Legion posts, VFW posts and most Scout troops hold retirement ceremonies and will take a worn flag off your hands. Many fire stations collect them too.
The triangular fold is a long-standing military custom, not a requirement of the Flag Code. Do it because it is worth doing, not because a statute says so.
- Step 55 min
Fly it on the next flag-flying day
The card is only worth anything the first time you use it.
When: The next federal holiday or flag-flying day
Sunrise to sunset, or lit through the night. Check the half-staff list above first.
Your Flag Protocol Card is saved and works without a signal, which is the state most flagpoles are in.