How reciting the Pledge of Allegiance became a sacred, patriotic ritual

The anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. flag is celebrated each year on June 14. tiaramaio/RooM via Getty images by Thomas S. Bremer, Rhodes College The Continental Congress, the legislative body for the newly declared United States, adopted an official flag on June 14, 1777. The delegates resolved that “the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” In the early years of the nation, though, this flag rarely appeared except in government and military displays. That changed with the Civil War. As historian and author Marc Leepson writes in his book about the U.S. flag, Northerners began displaying it in homes and businesses to show support for the Union. After the war, the flag became a symbol of the reunified nation. In 1885, schoolteacher Bernard Cigrand commemorated for the first time the anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. flag with his students at the Stony Hill School in Wisconsin. He subsequently launched a campaign to establish June 14 as Flag Day. In 1949, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution designating June 14 of each year as Flag Day....