We're heading into the long Independence Day weekend. The smell of food, Sousa music, and American flags are sure to be everywhere. If you're planning on displaying the flag this Fourth, please do it right. robin has a few reminders from the flag himself, but I would like to point out a few others.

(a) Display on buildings and stationary flagstaffs in open; night display
It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset
on buildings and on stationary flagstaffs in the open. However, when a patriotic
effect is desired, the flag may be displayed twenty-four hours a day if properly
illuminated during the hours of darkness.

(h) When the flag of the United States is displayed from a staff projecting
horizontally or at an angle from the window sill, balcony, or front of a
building, the union of the flag should be placed at the peak of the staff unless
the flag is at half staff. When the flag is suspended over a sidewalk from a
rope extending from a house to a pole at the edge of the sidewalk, the flag
should be hoisted out, union first, from the building.

(i) When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the
union should be uppermost and to the flag's own right, that is, to the
observer's left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed in the
same way, with the union or blue field to the left of the observer in the
street.

(j) When the flag is displayed over the middle of the street, it should be
suspended vertically with the union to the north in an east and west street or
to the east in a north and south street.

You can find the entire flag code here. Have a safe and fun Fourth.