Pulaski Street fifth graders learn about the history of the American flag

Did you know that, when Francis Scott Key penned “The Star Spangled Banner” in 1814, he was really writing about an American flag with 15 stripes, not 13?

Ann Otten, vice regent of Suffolk’s chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, explained to an auditorium of Pulaski Street fifth graders this morning that the American flag has undergone many changes to become the internationally recognized symbol of freedom and sacrifice that it is today.

Though the number of states in the U.S. is now represented by the flag’s stars, for example, the flag’s red and white stripes once held this honor. When Kentucky and Vermont first joined the Union, the number of stripes grew from 13 to 15.

But as the number of new states continued to grow, Congress quickly realized that additional stripes would clutter the country’s beloved national symbol. So new states were represented by stars instead, and the number of stripes was changed back to 13 to symbolize the country’s original 13 colonies.

Pulaski Street fifth graders gather every year on Flag Day – or the following Monday, should the holiday fall on a weekend as it did this year – to learn about how the American flag got to look the way it does today.

Otten also explained how to properly care for the American flag, as well as the sacramental ceremony performed by veterans groups to lay flags to rest once they are no longer presentable.

Riverhead NJROTC cadets demonstrated a formal flag folding ceremony as Otten told students what each of the different folds symbolize.