Former President James Earl Carter, who was 100 years of age and our oldest living former president, passed away on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia. Carter was a former governor of Georgia, so he will lie in repose in Atlanta before being flown to Washington, D.C. where Carter’s body will lie in repose at the U.S. Rotunda for three days ahead of his state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral on January 9, 2025. 

Our last living former president to pass was George Herbert Walker Bush in December 2018 at the age of 94. So, it’s an opportune time to refresh ourselves on some of the traditions and rituals that occur on the death of the person who wore the illustrious mantle of the leader of the free world. 

Flags Fly at Half-Mast for 30 Days

The terms are often interchangeable, but “Half-Staff” tends to be used in official governmental contexts and in reference to flags flown on land, while “Half-Mast” is more commonly used in the nautical sense. So, it would be appropriate for President Carter who was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and a lieutenant in the Navy before taking over his family’s peanut farm business and moving into politics.

Per presidential declaration, all government buildings, public schools, offices, and military bases will lower their flags to half-staff for 30 days as is the custom when a U.S. president or former president dies. Carter’s date of death was Sunday, December 29, so the White House lowered its flags after President Joseph Robinette Biden’s announcement. The rest of the nation began flying their flags at half-staff on December 30, 2024, and will fly them in this manner until January 28, 2025.

The President Issues an Official Death Announcement

The sitting president is expected to issue a proclamation announcing the death of a president. President Biden made an unofficial proclamation on the social media platform X (which frankly is becoming an official source these days), before his issuance of an official proclamation for the legacy news media.

Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian. pic.twitter.com/Ki7Rhbent0

— President Biden (@POTUS) December 29, 2024

President-elect Donald John Trump issued a statement on Carter’s passing.

The President Declares a National Day of Mourning

This tradition began with President John Tyler upon the death of President in 1841 and slowly morphed into the official part of the president’s duties. According to the American Presidency Project, “The current set of rituals are fully apparent by 1969 with the death of Dwight Eisenhower[.]” President Richard Milhous Nixon issued an executive order declaring a Day of Mourning, which “closed all government departments on the day of the funeral, directed that flags be flown at half-staff for 30 days, and directed that suitable honors be rendered by units of the United States Armed Forces.” For me, that last part is the coolest. 

Presidential designations of Days of Mourning are not just for presidential deaths. President Lyndon Baines Johnson declared one for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and President George Walker Bush designated one for the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

President Biden issued his executive order on Monday declaring January 9 as a National Day of Mourning on the death of former President Carter.