The accepted substitute for half-staff on any fixed mount. It clips to the flag’s top grommet and hangs free for the length of the mourning period. If you own one thing on this page, own this — it’s the item you’ll wish you had the morning an alert arrives.

Look for about 2.5–3 in wide and 5 ft long for a standard 3×5 flag. The one linked has brass grommets and ships with the spring snap hook, which is what you need on a house mount — there is no bare staff above the flag to tie to.

For a real flagpole, light it from the ground rather than from the pole. A pole-mounted collar light is genuinely difficult to retrofit — it has to go around the pole, and on anything with a halyard you are working around the rope and its cleat. Fitted at install time it is fine; fitted afterwards it is a job. An uplight staked at the base avoids all of that, and it is how most institutional poles are lit anyway.

Plugs into a standard outlet, so site it within reach of one. This one throws far enough for a 20–25 ft pole; taller poles usually want two, set opposite each other.

Clamps to the staff and turns itself on at dusk. On a short house-mounted staff there is no halyard in the way, so the clamp-on collar that is awkward on a real flagpole is the easy answer here. No wiring, and it satisfies the illumination rule permanently.

Fits a 0.8–1.2 in staff, which covers the 1 in kit above. Sized for a 5–6 ft house pole, not a tall one — for that, use the uplight.

A flag flown daily in weather lasts a season or two, not a decade. When the stripes fray or the red goes pink, replace it. Buy American-made and FMAA certified — the certification exists specifically because imported flags are widely sold as domestic.

Nylon for wind and quick drying; spun polyester for heavy weather and longer life. The one linked is FMAA certified nylon, made in the USA, with embroidered stars and sewn stripes.

The whole setup for a porch column, garage, or siding: an angled staff, a bracket, and the hardware to hang it. This is the mount most American homes use, and the one all of the half-staff guidance on this site is written for.

A 6 ft staff suits a 3×5 flag. The one linked is a 6 ft stainless kit with a two-position bracket and 360° anti-wrap rings included. Check the bracket is rated for the surface you’re mounting to.

The clips that join the flag to the rope are what fail first, usually in the first real windstorm, and a flag left hanging by one grommet will shred itself within a day. Stainless swivel hooks also let the flag rotate instead of binding the halyard. Worth having the spare before you need it — a broken clip on the morning of a half-staff order is not a thing you can improvise.

For a rope halyard. A house-mounted kit does not use these — the pole above already ships with rotating clips on the staff.

For a burial flag or a retired flag you’d rather keep than dispose of. A triangular hardwood case with a glass front is the standard form, and it protects the fabric from light and dust in a way a closet shelf does not.

Sized by flag: 3×5 for most residential flags, 5×9.5 for a burial flag. Both are options on the same listing, which opens on the burial size — set the size before you add it to the cart.