Failing to Fly the Flag When You Should Sends One of the Most Negative Signals

Failing to fly a flag when you should or ought to can send one of the most negative signals possible, writes military heraldist Jan Eide. He says questions from the press and municipalities following King Harald’s death prompted him to revisit the issue.

Eide illustrates the point with a joke about a farmer who urgently orders a flagpole after nearly 30 years without one. When the carpenter asks why the rush, the farmer explains that the neighbor’s son is getting married on Saturday, and he does not intend to fly a flag.

Private owners, Eide writes, are free to decide whether to raise a flag. They should nevertheless consider what message they send by leaving the pole bare.

Public buildings have no such choice. They must fly flags on official flag days and lower them to half-staff when that has been ordered, as in response to the king’s death.

A practical problem can arise outside a municipal building with two fixed flagpoles. It is not appropriate to fly a flag on one pole but not the other, nor to show mourning on only one. Municipalities have the right to establish their own coats of arms and municipal flags, but that right also carries responsibility for setting local flagging rules. When a municipal flag is used in such circumstances, Eide says, it should “follow” the national flag.

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