America's flag, anthem, symbols and federal holidays

Thirteen stripes for the original colonies, alternating red and white; fifty white stars on a blue canton for the fifty states. The current arrangement took effect on 4 July 1960, following Hawaii's admission — the twenty-seventh version of the flag.

There is a Flag Code, set out in federal law, governing how the flag should be displayed: not allowed to touch the ground, illuminated if flown at night, flown at half-staff on specified days, and never used as apparel or bedding. It is entirely advisory. The Supreme Court held in Texas v. Johnson in 1989 that burning the flag is protected political expression under the First Amendment, and no penalty attaches to violating the Flag Code.

The stripes' colors have no official meaning assigned in the flag's adoption, though the Great Seal's colors were described by Charles Thomson in 1782 as red for hardiness and valor, white for purity and innocence, and blue for vigilance, perseverance and justice. That description is often applied to the flag by extension.

Flags are extremely common on private homes in a way that is unusual internationally, and the practice is not tied to any particular political affiliation.

The Star-Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 after watching the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore. The tune was borrowed from 'To Anacreon in Heaven', an English social club song — which is why it is notoriously difficult to sing.

It became the official national anthem only on 3 March 1931, more than a century after it was written. Before that, 'Hail, Columbia' and 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' — sung to the tune of 'God Save the King' — served in various official capacities.

The anthem has four verses. Only the first is ever sung. The rarely-quoted third verse contains a line referencing 'the hireling and slave' that has been the subject of significant historical debate about Key's intent, and Key himself was an enslaver.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and Christian socialist, for a magazine promotion tied to the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage. The words 'under God' were added by Congress in 1954 during the Cold War.

The Supreme Court held in West Virginia v. Barnette in 1943 that students cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge — a decision made during the Second World War and widely regarded as one of the Court's strongest statements on freedom of conscience.

There are eleven federal holidays. Legally they are days on which federal offices close and federal employees are paid. They do not create any obligation on private employers, and no federal law requires any employer to provide paid holidays, paid vacation or paid sick leave.

In practice most office employers observe the major ones — New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas — and many retail and hospitality workers work through all of them, often without premium pay, since no law requires it.

Juneteenth National Independence Day, marking 19 June 1865 when news of emancipation reached Galveston, Texas, became the eleventh federal holiday in June 2021 — the first added since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

Columbus Day remains a federal holiday but is contested. Several states and many cities have replaced it with Indigenous Peoples' Day, and some states never observed it. A number of states also observe holidays that are not federal, and some southern states have historically observed Confederate commemorations.

Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday in November, is the most widely observed and the biggest travel period of the year. Independence Day on 4 July is the most publicly celebrated.

The Great Seal of the United States, adopted in 1782, features the bald eagle holding an olive branch and thirteen arrows, with the motto E Pluribus Unum — 'out of many, one'. The reverse, with the unfinished pyramid and the Eye of Providence, appears on the one-dollar bill.

'In God We Trust' became the official national motto by Act of Congress in 1956, during the Cold War, and appears on all currency. E Pluribus Unum, on the Great Seal since 1782, is the older and unofficial traditional motto.

The bald eagle has been the national emblem since 1782. The persistent story that Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey instead comes from a private letter in which he criticized the eagle's character and praised the turkey — it was not a formal proposal.

The rose was designated the national floral emblem in 1986, and the oak the national tree in 2004. The bison became the national mammal in 2016 under the National Bison Legacy Act.

Uncle Sam, the personification of the US government, dates from the War of 1812 and was fixed in the public imagination by James Montgomery Flagg's 1917 recruitment poster.