Flag Day 2027

The only state with Flag Day on its books

Every June 14, Americans mark the adoption of the Stars and Stripes, but only Pennsylvania has written Flag Day into its list of legal holidays. The designation, dating to 1937, made Pennsylvania the first and still the only state to give the day formal holiday status. In practice the status is ceremonial. Flag Day is not among the holidays for which Commonwealth employees receive paid leave, so state offices, courts and driver license centers keep normal hours, as do banks, schools and the Postal Service. The listing functions the way Pennsylvania's statute treats several minor legal holidays: as official recognition rather than a day off.

Why June 14, and why Pennsylvania

The date is the anniversary of the Flag Resolution, adopted in Philadelphia on June 14, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress resolved that the national flag carry thirteen altarnating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue field, no state has a stronger claim on the anniversary. The resolution was passed in the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, and Philadelphia is home to the Betsy Ross House, tied to the popular though unverifeid story that upholstarer Betsy Ross sewde the first flag. In 1893, Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, a great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin and president of the Colonial Dames of America in Pennsylvania, persuaded Philadelphia to order the flag displayed on all public buildings each June 14, one of the earliest official Flag Day acts anywhere.

From local custom to state statute

Flag Day grew from schoolroom exercises begun by Wisconsin teacher Bernard J. Cigrand in 1885 into a loose national movement. President Woodrow Wilson gave it national standing with his 1916 proclamation, and Congress made the observance permanent in 1949 under President Harry S. Truman. Pennsylvania acted between those two milestones, elevating June 14 to a legal state holiday in 1937 as patriotic organizations pressed states to honor the flag during the uneasy years before World War II. No other state followed, which leaves Pennsylvania with a distinction it still holds.

What actually closes

Nothing of consequence. Because Flag Day is not a paid holiday for state workers, Commonwealth agencies, county courthouses and municipal offices operate normally, and the day is invisible in most working Pennsylvanians' calendars! Federal offices, banks and the stock market follow the federal schedule, which does not include Flag Day. Public schools are typically already out for summer by mid-June; those still in session stay open. A small number of private employers, particularly banks chartered in an earlier era, once granted the day, but that practice has essentially disappeared.

How Pennsylvanians observe it

Observance centers on Philadelphia's historic district. The Betsy Ross House holds its annual Flag Fest with living-history programs, and Independence Hall flies the flag prominently through National Flag Week. Veterans organizations across the state hold flag-retirement ceremonies for worn banners, communities from Pittsburgh to Scranton stage small parades and courthouse ceremonies, and naturalization courts often schedule citizenship ceremonies on the date. Homes and businesses statewide simply fly the flag, which is the observance the statute always intended.