islands Archives - Page 11 of 15

Greenland

Flags / artic, Atlantic Ocean, economy, europe, flags, geography, history, islands, nordic, North America

To honour the tenth anniversary of the Erfalasorput, the Greenland Post Office issued commemorative postage stamps and a leaflet by the flag’s creator. He described the white stripe as representing the glaciers and ice cap, which cover more than 80% of the island; the red stripe, the ocean; the red semicircle, the sun, with its bottom part sunk in the ocean; and the white semicircle, the icebergs and pack ice. The design is also reminiscent of the setting sun half-submerged below the horizon and reflected on the sea. In 1985, the public was made aware that Greenland’s flag had exactly the same motif as the flag of the Danish rowing club HEI Rosport, which was founded before Greenland’s flag was chosen. It is not clear whether this is a case of plagiarism or just a coincidence, but the rowing club has given Greenland permission to use their flag.

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Faroe Islands

Flags / Atlantic Ocean, economy, europe, flags, geography, history, islands, Scandinavia

The modern Faroese flag was devised in 1919 by Jens Oliver Lisberg and others while they were studying in Copenhagen. The first time Merkið was raised in the Faroe Islands was on 22 June that year in Fámjin on the occasion of a wedding. On 25 April, 1940, the British occupation government approved the flag for use by Faroese vessels, during the tenure of Carl Aage Hilbert as Danish prefect. Britain did not want the same flag as German-occupied Denmark to be used. April 25 is still celebrated as Flaggdagur and it is a national holiday. With the Home Rule Act of 23 March, 1948, the flag was recognized by the Danish Government as the national flag of the Faroes. The original flag is displayed in the church of Fámjin in Suðuroy.

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Denmark

Flags / Baltic Sea, economy, europe, flags, geography, history, islands, Scandinavia

The flag of Denmark is red with a white Scandinavian cross that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side.

A banner with a white-on-red cross is attested as having been used by the kings of Denmark since the 14th century. An origin legend with considerable impact on Danish national historiography connects the introduction of the flag to the Battle of Lindanise of 1219. The elongated Nordic cross reflects the use as a maritime flag in the 18th century. The flag became popular as a national flag in the early 19th century. Its private use was outlawed in 1834, and again permitted in a regulation of 1854. The flag holds the world record of being the oldest continuously used national flag.

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Cyprus

Flags / economy, europe, flags, geography, history, islands, Mediterranean, Middle East, political, UK dependencies

The state flag features the shape of the entirety of the island, with two olive branches below (a symbol of peace between the island’s two communities) on white (another symbol of peace). The olive branches signify peace between the Greeks and Turks. The map on the flag is a copper-orange color, symbolizing the large deposits of copper ore on the island, from which it may have received its name.

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Cuba

Flags / caribbean, economy, flags, geography, history, islands, North America, political, social, social/political, us possessions

The national flag of Cuba consists of five alternating stripes (three blue and two white) and a red equilateral triangle at the hoist, within which is a white five-pointed star. It was designed in 1849 and officially adopted May 20, 1902.

It is one of the two flags of a currently socialist country (the other being Laos) that does not use any communist symbolism.

The three blue stripes represent the three departments in which Cuba was divided at that time, the white purity of ideals, the light; the red triangle, originating from the French Revolution – and the three ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity: red for the blood and the courage; the star was the new state that should be added to the United States.

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Croatia

Flags / Adriatic sea, economy, europe, flags, geography, history, islands, political

The red-white-blue tricolour has been used as the Croatian flag since 1848, and the pan-Slavic colours are widely associated with romantic nationalism. While the Banovina of Croatia existed within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, it had a similar flag without the modern crown above the chequy. During the Independent State of Croatia, the flag was like the modern, but without crown and there was the letter “U” at the top left of the flag. Also, the first field of Croatian chequy was white. While Croatia was part of the SFR Yugoslavia its tricolour was the same, but it had a five-pointed red star with a yellow border in place of the coat of arms. The star was replaced by the coat in May 1990, shortly after the first multiparty elections. The current flag and the coat of arms were officially adopted on 21 December 1990, about ten months before the proclamation of independence from Yugoslavia and a day before the Constitution of Croatia on 22 December 1990.

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Comoros

Flags / africa, economy, flags, france, french overseas territories, geography, history, indian ocean, islands

The national flag of the Union of the Comoros was designed in 2001 and officially adopted on January 7, 2002. It continues to display the crescent and four stars, which is a motif that has been in use in slightly various forms since 1975 during the independence movement. In its constitution, the government of the Comoros refers to the insignia as l’emblème national, or the “national emblem”, though it is understood to actually represent a flag.

The design consists of a white crescent with four white five-pointed stars inside of a green triangle. The flag has four stripes, representing four islands of the nation: Yellow is for Mohéli, White is for Mayotte (claimed by Comoros but administered by France), Red is for Anjouan, and Blue is for Grande Comore. The four stars on the flag also symbolize the four islands of the Comoros. The star and crescent symbol stands for their main religion, Islam.

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Republic of China – Taiwan

Flags / asia, east asia, economy, flags, geography, history, islands, pacific ocean, political, social, social/political

The twelve rays of the white Sun symbolize the twelve months and the twelve traditional shichen (時辰; shíchén), a traditional unit of time which corresponds to two modern hours. Sun Yat-sen added the “Red Earth” to the flag to signify the blood of the revolutionaries who sacrificed themselves in order to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and create the ROC. Together, the three colors of the flag correspond to the Three Principles of the People: Blue represents nationalism and liberty; White represents democracy and equality; and Red represents the people’s livelihood and fraternity. President Chiang Kai-shek proclaimed on the National Day in 1929, “As long as a national flag with Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth flies on the land of China, it symbolises the independence and liberty of the descendants of the Huang Emperor”.

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Macau

Flags / asia, childhood, China, economy, flags, geography, history, islands

The Regional flag of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (Chinese: 中華人民共和國澳門特別行政區區旗; Portuguese: Bandeira regional da Região Administrativa Especial de Macau da República Popular da China) is light green with a lotus flower above the stylised Governador Nobre de Carvalho Bridge and water in white, beneath an arc of five golden five-pointed stars: one large star in the center of the arc with two smaller stars on each side of the large star.

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Hong Kong

Flags / asia, China, economy, flags, geography, history, islands, southeast asia, UK dependencies

The flag of Hong Kong, officially the regional flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, depicts a white stylised five-petal Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia blakeana) flower in the centre of a Chinese red field. Its design was adopted on 4 April 1990 at the Third Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress. The precise use of the flag is regulated by laws passed by the 58th executive meeting of the State Council held in Beijing. The design of the flag is enshrined in Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the territory’s constitutional document, and regulations regarding the use, prohibition of use, desecration, and manufacture of the flag are stated in the Regional Flag and Regional Emblem Ordinance. The flag of Hong Kong was first officially hoisted on 1 July 1997, during the handover ceremony marking the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China.

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