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
- AU NavalEnsignHalfMast.JPG
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.
- Chapecoense - Bandeiras a meio mastro.jpg
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
- Half Masted Bagotville.jpg
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
Media related to Flags at half staff at Wikimedia Commons
