Oliver’s Funeral Home is hosting its annual Canadian flag retirement ceremony once again to honour the flags that have served their time, and will now be laid to rest.
The tradition began in 2016, and Oliver’s Owner Chris Clements says he looks forward to the event every year, as he sees it as not only a respectful way to dispose of spent flags, but as a moment of national pride.
“We’re excited every year about this event, it’s unique, not many people do this, so it’s good just to bring people together and remember the country we live in and how blessed we are,” he says. “Retiring the flag lets you know that yeah, this is a good country and we should be proud of it.”
Clements maintains that the ceremony is all about respect. He says many are simply unaware of how to dispose of Canadian flags in a dignified manner.
“Most people actually don’t know how to dispose of a flag properly,” he says.
“Originally, you were supposed to burn them all together, but now that they’re made of nylon, we don’t burn them, the fire department was like- yeah we’re not doing that again, because it was just black smoke, and it was a big mess,” he laughs. “Now we just bury them at the cemetery, we have special plots there for them so it’s a good set up now.”
Anyone is welcome to attend the event; however, Clements says the organization needs the flags ahead of time, so attendees will be unable to have their flag buried on-site this year.
“We need the flags in advance because we actually roll them all up and wrap them up, but you can always bring flags to Oliver’s because we do the event every year, so we have some boxes to store them in throughout the year.”
The event is scheduled for February 13th, with the ceremony starting at 11:00 a.m.
