Why does the flag have 13 stripes?

The stripes stand for the first group of colonies that started the country. There were 13 of them along the Atlantic coast before the United States became independent. This part of the flag stays the same to remember those beginnings.

The United States began as 13 British colonies along the Atlantic coast. When the country became independent, the flag’s 13 stripes were chosen to honor those first colonies that formed the new nation.