# Folding the Flag

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/folding-the-flag/277167>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/folding-the-flag/277167 "2004-11-29T17:08:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jebert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ec9cab/32.png) [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/folding-the-flag/277167/1 "2004-11-29T17:08:54Z")

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All current and former Boy Scouts and military personnel (I presume) are familiar with the prescribed triangular folding method for the American flag.

I’d like to know where this peculiar folding method originated and if it is uniquely American.

Also, each of the 50 states has a flag, but I am not aware of any prescribed method for folding a state flag. Does anyone know if any of the states has one?

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**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/folding-the-flag/277167/2 "2004-11-29T17:28:35Z")

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Just poking around Google to see what I can see…

[Here’s](http://flagspot.net/flags/hr-fold.html) a description of folding a Croatian flag. Though a different folding sequence it too ends up in a triangle.

There is no flag code provision requiring any particular folding method for the US flag but the triangle fold has become traditional. The idea that each of the folds was assigned some meaning (the first fold is for eternal life, etc.) is according to [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/military/flagfold.htm) made up and not something that was created as part of the flag fold design.

Couldn’t find anything on a state level regarding flag ceremonies but I didn’t check for all 50 states.

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**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/folding-the-flag/277167/3 "2004-11-29T19:30:02Z")

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I too have searched for “official” folding methods of US state flags, and generally there aren’t any recommendations, except DON’T fold a state flag into the triangle. I tell my Scouts to fold it into halves/quarters (like a towel). I believe Ohio (which is a penant shape) has different rules though.

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/folding-the-flag/277167/4 "2004-11-29T19:34:25Z")

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> [@jebert](#):
>
> All current and former Boy Scouts and military personnel (I presume) are familiar with the prescribed triangular folding method for the American flag.
> 
> I’d like to know where this peculiar folding method originated and if it is uniquely American.

When I was in the Boy Scouts in Canada, we weren’t taught to fold the Canadian flag in a triangle. We did a combination of folding and rolling producing a 10" long bundle that you could run up the pole, snap the rope, and have it unfurl at the top of the pole.

I’ve never seen a Canadian military ceremony, so I don’t know if they give the flag to the family. But, when Prime Minister Martin was sworn in about a year ago, he was holding a flag that had flown over the Peace Tower when his father was in Cabinet, and it was folded in a triangle.