It’s official, only 5 months, 2 weeks and 5 days until Flag Day! Some important Flag Day Trivia:
- Woodrow Wilson created the official Flag Day holiday, it its present incarnation in 1916 to commemorate the creation of the United States flags
- Flag Day traditions include the recreation of American flags out of foodstuffs, the hoarding of nickels, and singing songs in praise of Bernard J. Cigrand, a school teacher from Waubeka, Wisconsin who held the first formal celebration of Flag Day, such as “Oh Cigrand, We Thank Thee,” and “Bernard Knows the Way (with a needle in the hay).” Bernard J. Cigrand himself was a disciplinarian as a teacher who made is 4th grade students march up and down the banks of lake Waubeka with iron poles on their shoulders to simulate the hardship of George Washington’s troops in the Revolutionary war. He also coined the phrase “peanut allergy.”
- Only Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Jimmy Carter have failed to officially acknowledge Flag Day as presidents. Coolidge and Carter because of forgetfulness, Truman out of spite.
- Attempts to make Flag Day more commercial have largely failed, but include the 1963 Coca Cola Campaign “Give a Coke and a Flag,” and efforts by the National Seamstresses Association to begin a tradition of exchanging sewing machines on Flag Day morning in 1979.
- Flag Day occurs every June 14th, accept during Leap Years when it also occurs on April 11th.
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