Philadelphia, Home of the American Flag, Pulls Out All Stops For Flag Day Celebrations
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By Hadas Kuznits
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A variety of Flag Day celebrations were taking place today around Old City Philadelphia, the birthplace of our country and the Stars and Stripes.
On Independence Mall, bystanders got a Flag Day surprise when members of the Fastrax Skydiving Team made a grand entrance from above, carrying gigantic American flags.
"We flew above the city and just has an awesome experience, deploying our flags and landing in front of the people cheering," says team owner and project leader John Hart. "Our biggest flag was 3,500 square feet."
They launched from 4,000 feet above. We asked Hart what Independence Mall looks like from 4,000 feet in the air.
"Small -- very small," he said.
At the nearby Betsy Ross House, near 3rd and Arch Streets, they were celebrating Flag Day in a more down-to-earth fashion.
Lisa Acker Moulder (at right in photo below), director of the Betsy Ross House, says the woman who is purported to have sewn the first American flag made a huge contribution to the way it looks today.
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"The Continental Congress wanted the flag to have six-pointed stars, and Betsy said it would be much faster to make five-pointed stars," Moulder says, "so she took out a piece of paper and folded the piece of paper -- just four folds -- and with one snip of her scissors she made a perfect five-pointed star. And the flag committee who visited her that day were so impressed that they agreed to change the design of the flag to have a five-pointed star."
Free events will be taking place all week long at the Betsy Ross House in celebration of Flag Week.
