Why is the casket draped with a U.S. flag and why is it folded into a triangle shape?
A United States flag drapes the casket of deceased veterans to honor the memory of their service to America. The flag is placed so that the blue field with stars is at the head and over the left shoulder of the deceased. The custom of draping the casket began in the Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when a flag was used to cover the dead as they were taken from the battlefield on a caisson. The position of the blue field is reversed to indicate mourning with the blue field on the right as the flag faces the coffin. It may be said that the flag is embracing the deceased who in life has served the flag. Today, the American Flag that covered the casket symbolizes the deceased service in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.
