If you are flying a flag today, proper protocol is important.
Specific guidance is found in the U.S. Code, which instructs that any time a flag is flown at half-staff, it "should be first hoisted to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position."
On Memorial Day, special protocol is observed. The flag should fly at the half-staff position until noon, and then be raised to the top of the staff for the remainder of the day. This honors the war dead in the morning of Memorial Day, but then the flag is raised to full-staff at noon by the living, "who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all."
The custom appears to date back to at least 1906, when an Army regulations book included instructions for the procedure. Congress made it a permanent part of the U.S. Code (Title 4, Section 6) with the proclamation: "For the nation lives, and the flag is a symbol of illustration."
On the Net:
US Code: The Flag
