February 6, Massachusetts Statehood Day

Flag etiquette guides and the U.S. Flag Code urge residents of Massachusetts to fly U.S. flags today, to honor Massachusetts’s joining the Union.

U.S. flag flies at Quincy Market in Boston (a 4th of July celebration is pictured) – WHDH Channel 7 image

Massachusetts’s statehood is figured as the date the colony ratified the U.S. Constitution. A convention ratified the document on February 6, 1788. Massachusetts was the 6th colony to ratify.

The next flag-flying date is February 12, in honor of Lincoln’s birthday.