Posted: Saturday, 14 November 2009 4:18AM
Old Flags Ceremonially Retired
Hundreds of old and worn flags will be burned today in Dallas at Flagpole Hill. Burning is one of the two proper ways to retire Old Glory, the other is burial. Today's event was organized by Jeanette Prasifka, the founder of old worn flag dot com, who says they stopped counting how many they had for the ceremony when they reached 300. She says the proper "retirement" of a worn out flag takes about 25 minutes. First, the flag's blue union is cut away from the red and white stripes. Then the stripes, which represent the original 13 colonies, are burned before the blue union because the colonies preceded the union. Prasifka says flags should never just be thrown into the garbage.
