Meanings of country flags

[goktengri]

Share the meanings of your flags with us

 

[AlekS]

the official meaning is:

blue - sky
yellow - cornfield
Ukraine is the 2nd exporter of grain in the world; corn, bread etc have always been one of our symbols.
Sometimes yellow is refered to sunflowers

 

[Turkish97]

Crescent:Islam
Stars:Turkish
Red:Involved in the ground "blood" of representing.

 

[MyHeartIsYours]

United Kingdom

Made up of the flags of:
England

Scotland

and Ireland (now Northern Ireland)

Originally, Wales was considered part of England, however this has now change and there are some people (including me ) who want Wales to be represented on the flag. This is a possible design:

And our first flag was when we were the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Personally I think this is the nicest design .

 

[Kristi]

Ok I'm introducing the history of Albanian flag through years

Flag of the Princedom of Albania from 1368 to 1444.

Flag of the League of Lezhë introduced by Skanderbeg from 1444 to 1479.

Flag of the Provisional Government of Albania from 1912-1914.

Flag of the Principality of Albania from 1914 to 1920

Flag of the Principality of Albania from 1920 to 1925 and the Albanian Republic from 1925 to 1926.

Flag of the Albanian Republic from 1926 to 1928.

Flag of the Albanian Kingdom from 1928 to 1934

Flag of the Albanian Kingdom from 1934 to 1939.

Flag of the Albanian Kingdom under Italy from 1939 to 1943.

Crowned version of the flag of the Albanian Kingdom under Italy. This is the crown of the House of Savoy, which ruled Italy since 1861 to 1946 and Albania from 1939 to 1943.

Flag of Albania under Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1944

Flag of the Democratic Government of Albania from 1944 to 1946

Flag of the People's Republic of Albania from 1946 to 1976, the Socialist People's Republic of Albania from 1976 to 1991, and the Republic of Albania from 1991 to 1992.

Flag of the Republic of Albania from 1992 to present.The main theory suggests that Skanderbeg used the Byzantine double-headed eagle on his seals, hence the modern flag.Although the flag of Albania is very similar to the Byzantine flag due to its ties to the ancient empire (much like any country in Eastern Europe), in Albania the symbol of the bicephalous eagle has acquired another interpretation by communists.It refers to the territory of Albania as the crossroads between eastern and western cultures and the unity of its peoples despite religious cleavages.Whereas the Serbs, for example created their medieval empire of Tsar Stefan Dušan, or Modern Greece, whose nationalist program Megali Idea borrowed heavily from Byzantine tradition Albania possesses a fourfold confessional divide and was forced by the Habsburgs to maintain a laic identity.Similarly, although unsubstantiated, the name Land of the Eagles may refer to the mountainous territory of the country, and the inhabitants of this territory.

You can also see:

• The Tale of the Eagle
• Coat of arms of Albania

 

[goktengri]

Crescent:Islam
Stars:Turkish
Red:Involved in the ground "blood" of representing.

Let me to explain to the truth

Crescent and star is a holy symbol of the Turks. You can find Crescent-star motifs in Gokturk history. Gokturks were believing Tengriism religion.

The crescent moon and star were mistakenly attributed to the Islamic faith. However, Islam has historically had no symbol or symbols - in fact there is a disdain within Islam for the use of iconic symbols - and many Muslims find its use blasphemous, even to this day. After all, the moon and star used in conjunction were originally pagan icons. Though the Crescent Moon and a Star appear on the flags of several Muslim countries, it should be seen more as a historical symbol of the land, the territory or the empire, rather than of a state religion. It was adopted by reformists who changed the Islamic Constitution.

The crescent moon and star were holy symbols for Turkic tribes, while red was the cardinal color for west in ancient Turkic culture. In Turkish tradition, red also represents hegemony, while white represents power, justice, exaltation and purity. Göktürks, a Turkic people who lived in Central Asia, used crescent and star on their coins. A 1500 years old Göktürk coin includes three figures of a crescent moon and a star around the possible figure of a leader.

Crescent-stars in Gokturks motifs

Gray Wolf, which was a holy animal of Turks, also is a symbol in Tengriism

The star and crescent are Muslim symbols, but also have a long pre-Islamic past in Asia Minor.

After Turks adopted the Islam religion, other islamic people took Crescent-star from us ( as we were a head of Islam world ). So that's why the Crescent-star seems as an Islamic symbol.

Crescent-star is a holy Turkic symbol. At least for us.

And true form:

Red: It means blood of all of died for its nation in the Turkish War of Independence. ( It's also represents hegemony in another opinions )

White: power, justice, exaltation and purity

Crescent-star: Turks

 

[Milos-BC]

Serbia

This is the official flag. Red-blue-white colors are supposed to be the lining opposite from the Russian flag (as Russia was always considered to be one of the biggest Serbian friends in our history), and that was the idea of Miloš ( ) Obrenović in the time of Second Serbian Uprising (battle against the Ottomans, etc....). Two eagles are symbols of "warrior-ship ", the crown is a symbol of "Serbian kingdom" that used to be quite big before, and the cyrillic part on the "shield" the eagles are carrying СССС (Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava) literally means "Only a unity saves the Serb"

 

[Israeliboy]

The blue stripes are intended to symbolize the stripes on a tallit, the traditional Jewish prayer shawl. The portrayal of a Star of David on the flag of the State of Israel was a natural choice, as it is a widely-acknowledged symbol of Judaism.

The white = Symbol of light, honesty, innocence and peace.
The blue = It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

The Israelites used a blue coloured dye called tekhelet; this dye is now believed to have been made from the snail Murex trunculus. This dye was very important in both Jewish and non-Jewish cultures of this time, and was used by royalty and the upper class in dyeing their clothing, sheets, curtains, etc. (The dye from a related snail can be processed to form Tyrian purple called argaman.)

In the Bible, the Israelites are commanded to have one of the threads of their tallit (prayer shawl) with tekhelet; when they look at this dye they will think of the blue sky, and of the God above them in Heaven. Tekhelet corresponds to the colour of the divine revelation (Midrash Numbers Rabbah xv.). Sometime near the end of the Talmudic era (500-600 CE) the industry that produced this dye collapsed. It became more rare; over time, the Jewish community lost the tradition of which species of shellfish produced this dye. Since Jews were then unable to fulfil this commandment, they have since left their tzitzit (tallit strings) white. However, in remembrance of the commandment to use the tekhelet dye, it became common for Jews to have blue or purple stripes woven into the cloth of their tallit. The idea that the blue and white colours were the national colour of the Jewish people was voiced early on by Ludwig August Frankl (1810–1894), an Austrian Jewish poet.

 

[No Name]

Only along with Austria this is the oldest flag in the world still in use by an independent country:

The flag is called "Dannebrog" and the myth tells that it fell down from the sky when the Danish vikings were just about to lose in Estonia under one of their crusades in Battle of Lyndanisse (read; Tallinn).

Obviously that story is just ****************************************.

I guess there isn't much to say about the colors etc. The flag forms a cross in the middle and that type of flag was later adopted by the other Scandinavian countries as you know them now.

The Danish flag was also the flag of Norway until 1821 when Norway adopted their own flag.

This flag, Raven banner, was used by the Scandinavian vikings way before we got our current flag.

 

[Etl]

The flag is called "Galanolefki" meaning "Blue-white".

The blue colour symbolizes the sea which is so important to Greece and its economy. The white colour symbolizes the waves of the sea.

The nine stripes represent the nine syllables in the phrase "Eleutheria i Thanatos" meaning "Freedom or Death", a battle cry during the revolt against the Ottoman Occupation.

The cross at the upper left corner symbolizes christianity and the greek orthodox church.

Some earlier versions:

and a variant of the current flag which is used for ceremonial purposes:

As far as the latter flag is concerned, it was very similar with a temporary flag of Iceland, at the times when they tried to design a new flag, so they changed it.

 

[94ayd]

I thought you were from Estonia?!

 

[MyHeartIsYours]

and a variant of the current flag which is used for ceremonial purposes:

This is my favourite Greek flag .

 

[Stella]

Romania

Name Romanian: Tricolorul
Use National flag and ensign
Proportion 2:3
Adopted 26 June 1848
24 April 1867
27 December 1989
Design A vertical tricolour of blue, yellow, and red, with stripes of equal width and blue near the flagpole
History:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Romania

 

[Gerly]

Estonian flag

is called also: "sinimustvalge" (blue-black-white) as the colours are.
blue - the sky
black - the soil
white - hope for the future

 

[vatroslav_cro]

FLAG OF CROATIA

Croatian horizontal tricolour of red, white and blue inherited its colours, of course, from the Croatian coats of arms: Croatian chequered red and silver, Dalmatian blue with three golden lions, and Slavonian blue with red field with black marten bordered with two white wavy lines, and golden star above. All of the three coats were, in fact, used in different times for all the land, as it is with the name also. Later in 19th cent. the geographical meaning of these names was finally firmly established. The land was named in 19th cent Triunar (meaning one made of three) Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia. Therefore, it is not unusual that the flag was made of all three colours.

One of interpretations of colours dating from late 19th century is Red Croatia, White Croatia, and Kingdom of Slavonia (blue). Red and White Croatia are Croatian states from early middle age, approximately in today's Dalmatia (Red) and central Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (White).

And finally to mention an interpretation of colours of the Croatian flag made by Miroslav Krleza, a great national writer, saying that the colours represent the three symbols of Croatian history and people: blood of Croatian martyrs, Croatian peaceful lamb like nature, and Croatian devotion to God.

 

[MyHeartIsYours]

For England, it is the emblem of our Patron Saint, Saint George. He wore the flag when he slayed the dragon and it began to be used as an emblem for England in the Middle Ages and during the Crusades. It was officially adopted as the flag of the Kingdom of England in the 1500's.

It can be said the the flag of Georgia is it's 'sister' flag, because both England and Georgia's patron saint is Saint George. It also features his cross:

My region, North West England, also has an unofficial flag which would have become official but for the rejection of regional Assemblies in 2004. It is based on the flag of St George.

 

[Leaf]

Canada



White - peace and honesty

Red - hardiness, bravery, strength & valour

In french, it is called l'Unifolié which means one-leafed.

As early as 1700, the maple leaf began to serve as a symbol celebrating Canada's nature and environment. The maple leaf on the flag is a sugar maple leaf. Sugar maples are native to Canada and have brilliant fall foliage. The number of points on the leaf has no significance; they do not, for instance, represent the ten provinces plus the federal government. In fact, some of the very first Canadian flags made had maple leaves of 15 points: the lower single points were tripled like the top three.

I can never draw the leaf quite right; other than that it's not a very hard flag to draw! I used to draw flags and colour them in.

 

[doctormalisimo]

FLAG OF IRELAND

This flag dates from the 1920s, when Ireland declared independence.
GREEN represents the Catholic community of Ireland.
ORANGE represents the Protestants in Ireland
WHITE represents the peace between those rival traditions.

 

[Charly]

Flag of Morocco:

It became the National flag in 1915 as soon Morocco got independance.

The red Background represents hardiness, bravery, strength and valour
And the Green Star represents: Solomon’s seal.

 

[Narmina]

​

Blue - The blue strip symbolizes Turkic heritage

Red - is for the progress to establish a modern state and the development of democracy

Green - shows the nation's relation to the Islamic civilization

The crescent on the flag symbolizes Islam, and the eight-pointed star is 8 letters of the name "Azerbaijan"(in Arabic script). It is also believed that the eight-pointed star symbolizes the eight branches of Turkic peoples, including the Azerbaijanis, Ottoman (Turkish), Chagatai (Turkmens), Tatars, Kipchak, Seljuk and Iragi Turkmens.