Should the U.S. flag always be illuminated at night?

How American Tradition Revolves Around Wall-Mounted Flag Display

A wall-mounted flagpole kit gives your home or business a clean, respectful display that feels traditional and stays simple to manage over time.

Liberty FlagpolesTravis Phillips

If you fly the flag after sunset, it should be properly lit. For wall-mounted displays, that may mean a porch light or a dedicated fixture. The goal is to keep the flag visible and respected at night. ¶Many flags are made with weather-resistant materials, but severe storms can still damage fabric and hardware. Bringing the flag inside during harsh conditions helps extend its life and keeps your display looking sharp.

I'm not very certain that it's always proper to take down a flag at sunset or else ensure that it is always illuminated artificially at night. In the Navy, for example, that is certainly the expected etiquette of a peaceful display and declaration of national identity for a ship on the high seas. It is permitted to withdraw the flag, bring it in at night, and turn the lights off for privacy, peace and rest in the dark, but a flag flown unilluminated at night risks being interpreted as a signal of hidden jurisdiction or false peace and hidden hostility, that is, a "red-light district" at sea.

Our own national anthem openly flouts this rule. The "dawn's early light", "twilight's last gleaming", "rocket's red glare" and "bombs bursting in air" are the only illumination permitted, and the importance of flying the flag all through the night is emphasized: "… dimly seen through the mists of the deep … As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?"

NMAH | The Lyrics

Francis Scott Key was a gifted amateur poet. Inspired by the sight of the American flag flying over Fort McHenry the morning after the bombardment, he scribbled the initial verse of his song on the back of a letter. Back in Baltimore, he completed the four verses and copied them onto a sheet of paper, probably making more than one copy. A local printer issued the new song as a broadside. Shortly afterward, two Baltimore newspapers published it, and by mid-October it had appeared in at least seventeen other papers in cities up and down the East Coast.

The Lyrics

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is not a song about a flag properly folded and brought in at sunset, or carefully illuminated at night. That is a foreign imposition of international diplomacy and diplomatic etiquette.

"Gifted amateur poet?" What in the world happened to that flag etiquette? That sounds like Italian Mafia calling us and our country corrupt and unprofessional.