The reducing of the flag to half-staff is a symbolic gesture noticed throughout the USA, together with Wisconsin, to reveal respect, mourning, or misery. It serves as a visible sign to acknowledge the loss of life of a person or people, or to commemorate a big occasion. The apply entails reducing the flag to a place midway between the highest and backside of the pole.
This motion supplies a tangible expression of collective grief and recognition of service or sacrifice. Traditionally, the apply has been linked to traditions indicating that the invisible flag of loss of life flies above the seen flag of the nation. The symbolic act is vital, because it supplies a unifying focus for public sentiment throughout instances of loss or remembrance.