Our Popular Culture

When I took my children to see the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, they all came out wanting to get pirate flags. I can’t blame them. The action and adventure in that movie was contagious. It made everyone want to be a pirate. I have always viewed the Jolly Roger as a wonderful symbol. It symbolizes recklessness in the face of danger, a devil-may-care attitude, and an adventurous spirit willing to risk everything for profit and glory.

The interesting thing is that, if you look at historical pirate flags, they vary a great deal. The design of pirate party flags, the ones you see everywhere, is actually pretty typical, but each captain would put his own spin on it. Some of them had pictures of the captain drinking with Death, others had hour glasses to show the mortality of all people. Some of them had cutlasses, others crossbones, and others one of each. All of them were designed with the same goal in mind: to show enemies that the pirate meant business.

As a craft activity one afternoon last week, I had my kids design their own pirate flags. They absolutely love it. They have their own pirate hats and swords, which they put on before they started. We used black cloth and white paint to make pirate flags. It was a little bit messy and it took a few attempts, but in the long run it came out great. By the time we were done, we all had brilliant, menacing and fun pirate flags.

It was such a fun activity, in fact, that my youngest daughter proposed that we have a pirate party. I thought this was a grand idea. That night, we rented pirate movies, got some pizza (not the most piratical food, but still a lot of fun) and sat down to watch film after film. It was a whole lot of fun. Not only did we watch Pirates of the Caribbean, but we also watched some old Errol Flynn pirate movies and a few others. We even watched Ice Pirates, a cult science-fiction classic that has been one of my favorites since college. Next time we do it, we’re going to make it even bigger and better. I think I’ll let the kids invite friends over and have a few friends of my own to the house. It sure will be a raucous night of high seas adventure.

Check out these Pirate Flags
Then see a Pirate Movie
And here are some Pirate Movies for Kids