Flag Mourning Ribbons: Timing, Sizing, and How to Attach

Flag mourning ribbons are black streamers tied to the top of a flagstaff when a flag cannot physically be lowered to half-staff. They apply to indoor displays, flags on short house-mounted poles, and any setup where the hardware doesn’t allow lowering. The practice comes from custom rather than statute, and the details worth getting right are timing, sizing, and placement.

When to Use a Mourning Ribbon

Use a ribbon whenever a half-staff order applies and your flag can’t be lowered. The President can order flags to half-staff nationwide, and state governors can do the same within their states for officials and service members.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 4 USC 7 – Position and Manner of Display If flags around you are lowered, yours should show mourning too.

Several dates trigger half-staff every year:

Beyond the fixed dates, presidential proclamations can order half-staff on short notice after a tragedy or the death of a prominent figure, and local authorities sometimes call for mourning after the death of a mayor, first responder, or other public servant. Any of those situations calls for a ribbon if you can’t lower the flag.

How Long to Leave the Ribbon Up

A mourning ribbon stays up as long as the corresponding half-staff order runs. For the annual observances above, that means one day. Presidential proclamations after a tragedy specify their own end date.

For the death of a government official, the Flag Code sets specific durations:1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 4 USC 7 – Position and Manner of Display

  • President or former President: 30 days from the day of death.
  • Vice President, Chief Justice, or Speaker of the House: 10 days from the day of death.
  • Associate Justice, Cabinet Secretary, former Vice President, or Governor: from the day of death until interment.
  • Member of Congress: the day of death and the following day.

Take the ribbon down promptly once the period ends. Leaving it up indefinitely dulls the meaning of the gesture.

Sizing a Mourning Ribbon

The Flag Code itself makes no provision for mourning ribbons, so sizing comes from longstanding custom. Two proportions are commonly used: the ribbon should be no wider than about 10 percent of the flag’s width, and when tied in a bow, each hanging streamer should roughly match the flag’s length.

The easy way to work this out is to start with a single length of black ribbon cut to twice the length of your flag. For a standard 3-by-5-foot flag, that’s about 10 feet of ribbon, no wider than roughly 3.5 inches. Tied in a bow at the top of the staff, each streamer will hang about 5 feet, matching the flag’s fly. The same logic scales up or down to any flag.

For material, black crepe is traditional for indoor displays because of its matte texture and the way it drapes. Grosgrain holds up better outdoors and resists fraying in wind and rain. Whatever the material, keep it solid black with no patterns.

How to Attach the Ribbon

The ribbon goes above the flag and below the finial, the ornament at the top of the staff. Tie its midpoint around the staff in a bow so the two streamers hang freely on either side of the flag. That bow-knot approach is standard: it holds, it looks intentional, and it comes off cleanly.

On a halyard pole with a rope-and-pulley system, secure the ribbon where the flag attaches to the rope, just below the truck at the top. A ribbon is the fallback only when the pole’s mechanism prevents proper half-staff. If your pole can be lowered, lower it.

The streamers should hang free without wrapping the pole or covering the flag’s design. If wind keeps tangling them, the ribbon is either too long or not tied tightly enough at the top.

Military flags follow a stricter specification. Army Regulation 840-10 calls for a black crepe streamer 7 feet long and 1 foot wide, attached at its center immediately below the spearhead, and only when ordered by the President or the Secretary of the Army.5Department of the Army. AR 840-10 – Flags, Guidons, Streamers, Tabards, and Automobile and Aircraft Plates Civilians aren’t held to those dimensions, but the regulation is useful reference for anyone working with a veterans’ organization or color guard.

State, Corporate, and Organizational Flags

A point that catches people out: when the U.S. flag is lowered to half-staff, other flags flown alongside it don’t come down. Only the national flag is flown at half-staff. State flags, corporate flags, and organizational banners on adjacent poles should instead get a mourning ribbon at the top of their staffs. That keeps the lowered U.S. flag as the primary expression of national mourning while the companion flags still acknowledge the occasion.

For anyone running a multi-flag display at a business or government building, this is where ribbons become the working solution rather than a nice-to-have. The U.S. flag goes down. Everything else gets a black ribbon below the finial.

Personal and Private Mourning

The Flag Code and the observance statutes cover deaths of officials and national tragedies. They don’t address private losses. Custom leaves room for personal use at a private residence, though public buildings should display mourning only under direction from the appropriate authority.

If you use a ribbon for a personal loss, the same sizing and attachment guidance applies. There is no set number of days set by tradition, so a reasonable practice is to display the ribbon through the day of burial or memorial service and then remove it. A clear start and end keeps the gesture meaningful.

A Note on Enforceability

The U.S. Flag Code carries no penalties for private citizens. The Congressional Research Service has described most of the code as containing “no explicit enforcement mechanisms” and its provisions as “declaratory and advisory only.”6Congress.gov. Frequently Asked Questions About Flag Law If your ribbon is a little short or a little wide, no one is issuing a citation. The point is respect, not compliance, and the guidance above exists to help the display look intentional rather than improvised.