Half-staff
Half-staff or half-mast describes a flag being displayed at halfway up a flagpole or a ship's mast. This is done in many countries as a symbol of respect, mourning, or distress, or a form of honor, often with a moment of silence.
The flag does not always have to be flown at exactly the half-way point, sometimes it is acceptable to have the "half-mast" flag at slightly lower or slightly higher than the middle of the flagpole or mast. Originally, "half-staff" meant that the flag had to be flown one flag-width from the top to allow for the "invisible flag of mourning" to be at the top.[1]
Half-staff Media
- Half raised flag.jpg
The Finnish flag flying at half-mast after the 2011 Norway attacks
- Buchenwald American Flag 23060.jpg
The American flag flying at half-mast in Buchenwald, Thuringia, Nazi Germany, on 19 April 1945 after the death of US President Franklin Roosevelt
The Australian White Ensign flying at half-mast. In accordance with British tradition, the flag is flying only one flag's width below the top of the pole.
The Brazilian flag flying at half-mast beside the Mercosul flag in front of the National Congress of Brazil in memory of the victims of the Chapecoense crash on 29 November 2016
The flag of Canada, the flag of Québec, and the flag of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets are half-masted on board Bagotville Cadet Summer Training Centre, following the train derailment and explosion in Lac Mégantic, Québec.
- Joseph Shepard Federal Building.jpg
The flag of Canada at half-mast outside the Joseph Shepard Building in Toronto, following the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, 2021
- National mourning for 2008 Sichuan earthquake victims - Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 2008-05-19 (Cropped).jpg
Chinese flag at half-mast as a sign of mourning for the victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake
- Funerales del ex Presidente Fidel Castro Ruz (30521067143).jpg
Cuban flag at half-mast for the state funeral of former leader Fidel Castro, 2016
- Land-bw-g.jpg
Black ribbons indicate mourning on banners that cannot be lowered to half-mast.
- Flags at half-staff in GBS.jpg
Hong Kong SAR flag flown at half mast
References
- ↑ Franklyn, Julian, Shield and Crest: An Account of the Art and Science of Heraldry (London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1961), 176
Other websites
16x16px Media related to Flags at half staff at Wikimedia Commons
