Maybe I should have said something other than "fairytale" to describe what is apparently a story that was made up by an unknown author. I did some research online and can't find any reference to the 13 folds before the 21st century. Everything I can find says that it's not official and someone just made it up, but they dion't know who it was. Now thanks to the internet it's all over the world, and some people think it's something official that the government came up with. People have been folding the flag that way, maybe over 200 years before the 13 folds got their supposed meaning. And it's a meaning that varies according to who you talk too. There are different versions of the 13 folds.
Just because I don't think the number of folds has the signifigance ascribed to them doesn't mean that the flag doesn't mean anything to me. If the flag didn't mean anything to me I wouldn't have saluted it and pledged my allegience all those times I did. If it didn't mean anything to me I wouldn't have an 8 foot flag displayed continuosly for the last 17(?) years and have it lit up every night for passeresby to see. And if you don't know the flag code as well as I do, the Flag Code permits night time display "when a patriotic effect is desired." It should be illuminated if displayed at night.
When I was in the army and we put the post flag up for the entire division, and later took it down and folded it, no-one there knew anything about the 13 folds. I'm sure at least one other soldier would know the meaning of the folds, if there was one, when we had conversations about the flag. Yes, we sometimes talked about the flag and what it meant. We just had two men folding the flag while the third saluted the whole time. No reciting any possible meanings of the folds. Since a bunch of soldiers on active duty didn't know anything about the 13 folds while we were folding it, that makes me think it's nothing official, just something made up. That's what my research says too. So it's a nice story, but it's just made up. I'm a patriot and a veteran, and the flag means a lot more more to me than any made up story.
This is what I found several places when I looked for the official way to fold the flag:
1. Begin by holding it waist-high with another person so that its surface is parallel to the ground.
2. Fold the lower half of the stripe section lengthwise over the field of stars, holding the bottom and top edges securely.
3. Fold the flag again lengthwise with the blue field on the outside.
4. Make a rectangular fold then a triangular fold by bringing the striped corner of the folded edge to meet the open top edge of the flag. Starting the fold from the left side over to the right
5. Turn the outer end point inward, parallel to the open edge, to form a second triangle.
6. The triangular folding is continued until the entire length of the flag is folded in this manner (usually thirteen triangular folds). On the final fold, any remnant that does not neatly fold into a triangle (or in the case of exactly even folds, the last triangle) is tucked into the previous fold.
7. When the flag is completely folded, only a triangular blue field of stars should be visible.
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