Uniform Insignia Forum

Greetings! :D
Now with the 2004 Olympics, I was wondering what does each country's flag colour or specific symbol stand for?

I'll start with the Greek flag:

[img]http://atlasgeo.span.ch/flags/animations/Grece.gif[/img]

-The blue stands for the sea & the blue sky
-The white stands for the purity of our cause during the 1821-1830 struggle against the Ottomans
-The Greek Cross suggests that we're a Christian Nation of the Eastern-Orthodox religion
-The nine blue & white lines, stand for the nine syllables of the Greek motto Eleutheria i Thanatos (El-eu-the-ri-a i Tha-na-tos) (Liberty or Death).
Waiting for your response, best regards.

The US flag stands for freedom and justice. I think red is for the blood of people killed defending the flag, I think blue is for peace and white I have no clue ATM. Ill look into what the colors exactly stand for.

"The Union Jack shows that the first colonisation by Europeans was by Britain. In case you didn't know, Australia started as a penal colony. The Star of Federation is a seven pointed star. They came to the number seven, by giving each state (six in all) a point on the star, and having one more point for Australia's territories (of which there are several). There are two mainland territories, and several overseas, including two in Antarctica. The Southern Cross is a constellation that can be seen from all of Australia's states and territories.

Giuseppe Bottasini"

[url]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/au.html[/url]

thats where i got the info from

since chris will do the US flag, i'll post about the ol lone star flag, the state of texas.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/u/us-tx.gif[/img]

this flag was approved in 1839, during the time of the republic before annexation to the US. it has become the state flag since then.

the red is for bravery, white for purity, blue for loyalty.
the star is generally considered to stand for independence.

the local legend is that when texas was rebelling against mexico, the interim president needed a government seal. he cut off one of his overly-large cuff buttons which had a large star on it and pressed it into the wax.

The UK flag is:
The St George's cross, England;
The St Andrew's saltire cross, Scotland;
The St Patrick's saltire cross, Ireland (Northern).

The St David's cross, Wales, is not included, maybe because it is not red, white or blue like the others.

the red is for bravery, white for purity, blue for loyalty

As I said in my previous post in this thread I belive that is also what the US flag colors mean, I had a book on the US flag but I cant seem to locate it ATM lol :oops:

The German flag:
As in 1949 the German "Grungesetz" (Constitution) was written, the fathers of the Constitution couldn't take the flag of the Third Reich and the flag of the German Empire as new flag for the Federal Republic of Germany. So the went back to the black-red-gold flag of the Weimarer Republik (1919-1933). This flag was created in the beginning of the 19. century, when Germany was devided into a lot of states. The colours became very popular in 1813 during the German "Befreiungskriege" because the "Lützowsche Freikorps" used them as their uniform colour. The German "Nationalversammlung" of a German Union take then in 1848 these colours for their flag. But the colours have in Germany a longer tradition. The banner of the "Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nationen" showed in the 13. century a black eagle with red tongue, red feet and red beak on a golden ground (like the present German coat of arms). And this eagle had his origin in the golden eagle of the old Roman Empire.

The flag of Sweden is of mediaeval origin. It is a cross banner of the same kind as the banners carried by continental armies during the Third Crusade and later (end of 12th century). The Swedish Cross Banner was a royal symbol of dignity that also could be entrusted to individuals acting as the King’s lieutenants, such as commanders of armies in the field. Yellow and blue was the dominant colours of the early mediaeval Swedish coat of arms.

The King’s cross banner gradually became the Swedish flag. As decreed in a royal warrant of 1569, the yellow cross was always to be borne on Swedish battle standards and banners. Not until the 1620s, during the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, do we find any reliable evidence of the blue flag with a yellow cross being carried by Swedish vessels.

Being of mediaeval origin, representing a kingdom created in the late Viking Ages, the colours and shape of the flag do not have any outright symbolic meaning – except for the obvious meaning of the Christian Cross – in the same way as flags of newly created nations like the United States, Greece and Germany have.

Hi !

( probably off topic : For what country stands this flag : blue with a yellow horizontal stripe ?? Seen in the only country which bears a family name... )

Olivier Comault wrote:Hi !

( probably off topic : For what country stands this flag : blue with a yellow horizontal stripe ?? Seen in the only country which bears a family name... )

Lechtantenstein? Spelled wrong but im sure you guys get what country im trying to spell lol :D

Liechtenstein ? No, the Princes of L. are of Austrian Origin (Originally, L. is a fortress near Vienna ), they are "Princes of L.", but this is not their family name . The flag is blue over red, with a gold crown.
This " blue with an yellow horizontal stripe flag "( it is really a state flag, of a real and existing country, but the problem is that no country has a flag like that ) was seen in the hall of an hotel located in a very charming country, country which has the particularity to bear the name of its rulers...

One can smile with this anecdote, but it is a little bit terrifying...

I do apologize with the Citizens of this "Country with a curious flag", but I can assure them that it is absolutely true, even if the story is hard to believe, altough logical...
Olivier

I take it you are talking about debrecen in Hungary ? wasn't aware of the "scary story".

Habing a place named after its ruler is not that peculiar tho, until a few decades ago, you had Rhodesia (now Zymbabwe) named after James Rhodes and also the Australian state of Victoria, named after the queen.

marcpasquin wrote:I take it you are talking about debrecen in Hungary ? wasn't aware of the "scary story".

Habing a place named after its ruler is not that peculiar tho, until a few decades ago, you had Rhodesia (now Zymbabwe) named after James Rhodes and also the Australian state of Victoria, named after the queen.

And the Americas were named after that Italian guy (but his first name, which is weird)...

> And the Americas were named after that Italian guy (but his first name, > which is weird)...

"Vespuccia" wouldn't have sound as good I imagine.

Hi !

Of course, many rulers or discoverers gave their name to a country, but there is no example, nowdays, of a family which is the owner of a whole country, except... Saudi Arabia, because of the "Saudi" Dynasty.

And the "blue with a horizontal yellow stripe", which doesn't exist and was seen in Riyadh is simply... The Swedish one, transformed according to the local tolerance...

Hi !

Of course, many rulers or discoverers gave their name to a country, but there is no example, nowdays, of a family which is the owner of a whole country, except... Saudi Arabia, because of the "Saudi" Dynasty.

And the "blue with a horizontal yellow stripe", which doesn't exist and was seen in Riyadh is simply... The Swedish one, transformed according to the local tolerance...

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr_byz14.gif[/img]

This is the flag of the Byzantine Empire, from a major source of information on the flags of the XIVth century, the Conoscimento de todos los Reinos. This flag consists of a combination of the St. George Cross (red on a white field) with the arms of the ruling family of the Paleologues (1258-1453).
The four charges in the corners of each of the other two crosses can be seen either as firesteels, as in the badges of the Order of the Golden Fleece, or as the Greek letter B. In the latter case they form the initial letters of the Paleologues' motto:

King of Kings, ruling over Kings (Βασιλεύς Βασιλέων Βασιλεύων Βασιλεύσιν-Vassileus Vassileon Vassilevon Vassileusin)

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr~byzn.gif[/img]

Standard of Constantine the Great (323)
The flag has a white field with a blue couped cross. In each corner of the cross is the letter "B"; those to the left of the cross are backwards.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr_byz04.gif[/img]

The flag was red with a white couped cross. Thin diagonal rays extend from the upper left and right corners of the cross. The Greek letter "P" (rho) is above the cross, in white (the monogram of Jesus Christ-Iisous Christos)

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr~byzn1.gif[/img]

The "diagonal rays" are actually the Greek letter "X" ("chi"). The chi-rho symbol is an abbreviation for the name "Christ" (XPICTOC in Greek.)

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr-ind.gif[/img]

This was the most widely used revolutionary flag in the Peloponnese. Nevertheless, a different national flag was adopted by the provisional government

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr-ls.gif[/img]

Alexander Ypsilantis (1792-1828) was a Greek who served as a general in the Russian Army. He was the leader of the political movement called Philiki Etairia-Company of Friends (1820-1821) and led an invasion of Moldavia in an abortive attempt to liberate the Balkans from Ottoman rule.
Ypsilantis' flag is horizontally divided red-white-black.
The colours have the following meaning:
Red: imperial purple robe and the self-government of the Greek people;
White: innocence of the just cause of the Greek struggle against tyranny;
Black: the death of the Greeks for country and freedom.
The obverse (main side) of the flag shows Saint Constantine (Emperor Constantine the Great) and his mother Saint Helen, flanked by the words, in black:
EN TOUTO / NIKA (In this sign / thou shall conquest).
The reverse of the flag shows a phoenix emerging from the ashes, flanked by the words, in black:
EK TIS KONEOS MOU / ANAGENNOMAI ( I am reborn / from my own ashes).
It was the flag of Alexander and Demetrius Ypsilantis. The members of the Sacred Battalion and Georgios Olympos, heroes of the Greek independence struggle, fought and died under this flag.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr_1821.gif[/img]

The flag is white with a yellow cross & used as the revolutionary sea colours. The canton of the flag is blue with a red cross and a white saltire. The date 1821 is written in black in the middle of the flag. The revolutionary motto:

ELEUTHERIA I THANATOS (Liberty or death)

the main motto of this war and the current national motto of Greece, is horizontally written, in black, in the lower part of the flag.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr-ind1.gif[/img]

The flag is horizontally divided yellow-blue-white, with a white cross in the middle of the blue stripe, flanked by two green branches. The revolutionary motto ELEUTHERIA I THANATOS (Liberty or death), the main motto of this war and the current national motto of Greece, is horizontally written, in black, in the lower part of the flag.
This was the main flag used by the Greek guerillas against the Ottoman occupation during the independence war (1821-1829).

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr-alt.gif[/img]

The flag shown above, was from 1832 to 1970 the Greek National flag. The present Greek national flag, ( with the canton with the Greek cross & the 9 blue & white stripes), was back then the flag used at sea and on the coast.

Saint Constantine (Emperor Constantine the Great)

Wasent he the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire and killed when the Turks stormed Constantanople (sp) in 1453?

Emperor Constantine the Great ruled bwtween 306 and 337. He was the first emperor who allowed Christianity in the empire. A vision had assured him that he should conquer in the sign of the Christ, and his warriors carried Christ's monogram on their shields, though the majority of them were pagans. Constantine determined to make Constantinople the future capital of the empire.

Constantinople fell in 1453. The last Byzantine emperor was Constantine XI Dragases.

[img]http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/flags/pl-lgflag.gif[/img]

The red stands for blood sacred for the independence of the Fatherland, the white stands for purity.

ChrisWI wrote:

Saint Constantine (Emperor Constantine the Great)

Wasent he the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire and killed when the Turks stormed Constantanople (sp) in 1453?

Constantine the Great (Constantinus Imperator Romanorum-Constantine Emperor of Romans)

[img]http://www.romancoins.info/ConstantinusISolidus.jpg[/img]

ruled from 306-337 as the 1st Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (known as Byzantium). Shortly before the battle over the Tiberis river (July 25th 306), it is said that he saw a vision of the cross with the phrase EN TOUTO NIKA/In this sign thou shall conquest, on the sky & ordered his soldiers to draw this emblem on their shields. The defeat of Constantine's rivals was followed by the huge task of building a new capital for the Roman Empire in the East & of the declaration that every citizen of the Empire is free of following any religion (known as the declaration of Mediolanum-Milan). He founded a city on the Bosporus gulf, named officialy New Rome/Nea Romi in Greek, Constantinople was the more popular name of the city (Constantinople=Polis Constantinou, City of Constantine), while the name by which many called the capital was simply Polis (the City).

Constantine Dragasses Palaeologus

[img]http://www.geocities.com/spartiates300/palaiologos2.jpg[/img]

was the last Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, he ruled for only 2 years (1451-1453), a short period before the city & all of the Eastern Mediterranean region fell in to the Sultan Mehmet's hands & the Ottomans.

PS1: Sorry for the history lesson but many of you guys had some questions on the matter. Anyways, I've posted the historical evolution of the Greek flag & I expect that you guys, will follow for posting the historical evolution of your country's flag through the years.
PS2: I apologise to the moderators for the off topic, but IMHO it is a very interesting thread.
Greetings friends!

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/g/gr_byz14.gif[/img]

Cyprus followed the destiny of Greece (Eastern Illyricon, as Greece was called in the Byzantine years) from the 6th-12th century AD. Until 1192, Cyprus was part of the Eastern Roman Empire

[img]http://www.heraldique-europeenne.org/Regions/Balkans/Blasons/Jacques_I_Chypre.gif[/img]

The coat-of-arms & the flag of the Kingdom of Cyprus from 1197-1374 under the ruling dynasty of Isabelle de Lusignan & Henri de Poitiers

[img]http://www.heraldique-europeenne.org/Regions/Balkans/Blasons/Jean_II_Chypre.gif[/img]

The coat-of-arms & flag of the Kingdom of Cyprus from 1374-1432 under the ruling dynasty of Jean II de Lusignan, King of Cyprus, of Jerusalem & Armenia.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/t/tr~o-cig.gif[/img]

From 1489-1878, Cyprus was under the Ottoman rule & its official ensign was of the Christians of the Ottoman Empire (blue stripe through red ensign)

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cy_kokki.gif[/img]

During the years of the Greek Revolution (1821-1829), people in Cyprus fought for Enosis (Union) with Greece. The Greek letter "Pi" in the center of the flag, represents the village of Paralimni where for the first time guerillas organized & fought the Ottomans.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cy~be81.gif[/img]

From 1878-1925, Cyprus was a member of the British Empire & had its own distinguished flag.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cy~bens.gif[/img]

In 1925, Cyprus became a Crown Colony & the only Colony, as opposed to Dominion or Protectorate, that had its own Red Ensign.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cy~rens.gif[/img]

In 1960, the first proposal for a Cypriot flag had a white field with a large, rust-brown K (the first letter in the name "Cyprus" both in Turkish and Greek). Apparently considered too distinctive a design, this was rejected in favor of a flag similar to the present one. The first official version, in use for about a year, differed from the current one in having a white island with the yellow border instead of a solid yellow silhouette.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cy-1960.gif[/img]

On August 16th 1960, Cyprus addopted its current flag. It represents a united island, with two olive branches below as a distinctive symbol of the Island.

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cy.gif[/img]

> And the "blue with a horizontal yellow stripe", which doesn't exist and
> was seen in Riyadh is simply... The Swedish one, transformed according > to the local tolerance...

Was that flag flying from the swedish embassy or some other official building ? If not, I'd have to say this is probably an unofficial thing as I have never heard of a country having local versions for different countries.

Robbie JN wrote:The UK flag is:
The St George's cross, England;
The St Andrew's saltire cross, Scotland;
The St Patrick's saltire cross, Ireland (Northern).

The St David's cross, Wales, is not included, maybe because it is not red, white or blue like the others.

The St Patrick's cross actually stands for Ireland in general, since the whole of Ireland was part of the UK when the flag was created. The flag of Northern Ireland is a Cross of St George defaced with the Red Hand of Ulster (although it hasn't been acknowledged as official since 1972 when the NI Parliament was abolished). The Welsh flag isn't included because Wales wasn't considered a separate country at the time - it was only a province of England. The Cross of St David (gold on black) only seems to originate from the 1930s (at the earliest) anyway.

America was named after that Italian guy...

A definite possibility, but there is some controversy. There was, in fact, a mapmaker, who made maps of the lucrative codfishing spots in North America. Now, his last name was Merick and his first name began with an A, and he initialed his maps thus: "A. Merick" and they were know as A. Merick maps. No one knows for sure though, if the continents were named for Signore Vespucci or for this mapmaker.

I am Polish, though my name is nowhere near it. But, that is a story reserved for another time. The Polish flag is a flag consisting of two horizontal stripes, the top of white, the lower of red. It is derived from an emblem in which a white eagle was placed within a red shield. That, since the thirteenth century, was used to show Poland's emblem, and eventually, it's flag colors.

See here for further details on flag(s):

http://www.flags.net/country.php?country=POLA&section=CURR

Just in case your curious the present Canadian Flag stands for "Now under ownership of the Liberal Party!" (No need to guess who I voted for! ;) )

Well, the Brazilian Flag stands at most for our natural resources.
The meaning of the geometric forms and the colors is:

There is a Green rectangle, inside of the rectangle there is a "losango" in yellow, then at the center of the flag there is a blue ball with stars and a white stripe crossing the ball with the inscription: "Ordem e Progresso" witch means Order and Progress.

The Green Rectangle represents the florests and the huge Amazônia Jungle, the Yellow losango reffers to the gold mines (Brazil was full of gold mines that time) And the Blue ball with stars are a graphical representations of the sky in the night that Brazil becomes independent.

Now the withe stripe crossing the ball with the inscription, translate the principles of this country!!

The stars inside the blue ball also mean the Brazilian states. wich by an amazing coincidence are the same number of stars in the independence's sky that night

ps: Of course some new states rise, and some new stars apears at the blue ball, but tha magic remains!!!!

The national flag of Iceland is a red and white cross on a blue background. The red is for the vulcans, white is for glaciers, and the blue for the ocean around the country.

Egypt:

Red: the period before the 1952 Revolution which brought a group of army officers to power after deposing King Farouk, then King of Egypt. This was a period characterized by the struggle against the British occupation of the country.
White: symbolizes the advent of the 1952 Revolution which ended the monarchy without bloodshed.
Black: symbolizes the end of the oppression of the people of Egypt at the hands of the Monarchy and British colonialism.
http://flagspot.net/flags/eg.html

Adam Abdel Khalik

The Philippine flag was sown in Hong Kong in 1897 by three women, one of which was a niece of Jose Rizal, our national hero. The flag first flew victoriously at Alapan in May 1898 (where Filipino forces beat Spanish marines) and at Emilio Aguinaldo's house in June of that year.

The flag has two stripes of blue (peace) above red (courage) with a white (purity) triangle (equality) on the hoist. On each angle is a gold star (three island groups: Luzon, Visayas & Mindanao) and on the center is a sun (liberty) with eight rays (the first 8 to be put under martial law by the Spanish government, and consequently, the first 8 to revolt).

A unique trait of this flag is that it's red over blue during a state of war.

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ph.html

The flag of Serbia is a tricolour with Pan-Slavic colors. It consists of three equal horizontal fields, red on the top, blue in the middle and white on the bottom.
Same colours can be found on the flags of other slavic countryes, like slovenian, croatian, czech, slovak, russian......
The Coat of Arms of Serbia features the white bicephalic eagle of the Nemanjić dynasty, which in turn took on the eagle from the Paleologos dynasty of the Byzantine Empire.
Gules a double-headed eagle with wings displayed and inverted Argent, langued, beaked, legged and unguled Or, between two fleurs-de-lys of the third in base.
Present also on Russian coat of arms.

The principal field stands for the Serbian State ,while inescutcheon stands for Serbian Nation (Gules a cross Argent between four fire-steels of the same).
White cross stands for our religion-Eastern Othodox Cristianity.
The design on the inescutcheon has been used by Serbian states and church since the Middle Ages.
The firesteels were originally used in the Byzantine imperial coat of arms as stylized Greek letters Β and stood for the imperial motto Basileus Basileon Basileuon Basileusin ("King of kings, ruling over kings") in Greek.
The firesteels look like the modern cyrillic letter С, which represents the /s/ sound. They are often rendered as such, especially when the basic design is drawn by hand. They are commonly associated with the slogan Samo sloga Srbina spasava or Само слога Србина спасава ("Only unity saves Serbs").
Although Serbia is now a republic, the coat of arms also features the crown of the former Serbian monarchy.
Just to make a correct point, Serbia is in federation with Monenegro, witch makes Serbia & Monenegro. Flag used for this union is former Yugoslavian flag with panslavic colours-blue, white, red -top to bottom.

Also, just to say that Emperor COnstantin was born in Naissus-today Nis(Nish) city in Serbia!

Serbian flag 12. century
[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cs-sr_em.gif[/img]

Principate of Serbia 19th century
[img]http://zeljko-heimer-fame.from.hr/images/cs-sr838.gif[/img]

Republic of Serbia-today
[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cs-sr1.gif[/img]