In Pennsylvania and American Samoa* it is a public holiday. Usually the flag is flown from all public buildings, speeches are made in public places and ceremonies take place in towns or cities.
*In American Samoa Flag Day is celebrated on April 17th.
Elementary school children across the nation make The Pledge of Allegiance in front of the flag every weekday morning:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
During the War of 1812 between the British and Americans, lawyer Francis Scott Key was escorting a prisoner to freedom by ship when he saw an American flag surviving a battle in Baltimore Harbor. The flag inspired him to write the poem which provides the words for the national anthem. The actual flag now hangs in the Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.. Today the "Star-Spangled Banner" is sung at large public gatherings such as sports events. Many television stations play the anthem before the station closes down for the night.
The Star-Spangled Banner
The National AnthemOh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our Flag was still there. Oh, say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free, and home of the brave?
Courtesy of Embassy of the United States of America
