AlpinLuke

I have searched the site and probably I have used wrong tags, but I haven't found a thread about the meaning of the drawing of the flags and the tradition connected to them.

So I have thought to this one.

I will start, as obvious, with the Italian one.



First of all a description.

The "tricolore" [Italian word which means "containing 3 colors"] is a simple flag, in its general drawing equal to the French one with the green color as starting sector. A curiosity about this is that not all Italians remember that our flag starts with the green ...

Birth date: November 14th 1794
Birth place: Senate of Bologna [capital of the Republic Cispadana]

"The Senate in Bologna, by means of a document dated October 28th 1796, deliberates: "Flag with National colors - asked which ones are the National colors to form a flag, we have answered the Green, the White and the Red".

AlpinLuke

There are two main traditions about this:

The Italian flag is a variant of the flag of the French Revolution, in which the blue was replaced with the green, color which according to Masonic symbolism meant the nature and the natural rights: equality and freedom.

Actually the first ones to imagine the Italian flag were two patriots and students of the University of Bologna, Luigi Zamboni, born in the capital of Emilia, and Giambattista De Rolandis, from Castell'Alfero near the city of Asti, who in the fall of 1794 joined in a flag the white and red of the respective cities to the green, the color of hope.

KabukiSan

Here is the Armenian Flag:

http://www.tourismarmenia.net/wp-con...flag_photo.jpg

According to the Constitution of Armenia via Wikipedia;
"The Red emblematizes the Armenian Highland, the Armenian people's continued struggle for survival, maintenance of the Christian faith, Armenia's independence and freedom. The Blue emblematizes the will of the people of Armenia to live beneath peaceful skies. The Orange emblematizes the creative talent and hard-working nature of the people of Armenia."

The colors of the Flag also represent the colors of the Armenian Rubenid Dynasty between 11th and 13th century. Standard.

The Coat of Arms of Armenia is more interesting: The Lion and Griffin represent ancient Armenian characters from previous Dynasties. The Shield depicts the flags of all the ancient Kingdoms and in the Middle Noah's Ark and Ararat, which were then located in Armenia. The sword represents the power and strength of the nation, breaking the chains of oppression. Lastly, the ribbon, chains, wheat, and quiver represents Armenia's determination and perseverance of survival

http://www.tourismarmenia.net/wp-con...at_of_arms.png

jeroenrottgering

The Dutch flag


Is among the first flags who used the tricolore system. Sources indicate that flags of Russia, Belgium, France etc took this flag as an example. What the three colours mean is not exactly well known, but sources indicate the the red means the sky (but actually has no real meaning since it was just a colour to replace the Orange), the blue the House of Nassau and the white means freedom. About the red stripe their are some doubts however because originally it was Orange (now known as the Prinseflag after the House of Orange), but apparantly it had something to do with the sea that they changed it to red so it was better visable.


During the French/Batavian period in Holland 1795-1813 the Orange stripe began to go out of favor. The members House of Orange-Nassau were outlaws and in 1806 with the arrival of the French King Louis I it was officialy thrown away. Orange was symbol of the Orange-dynasty, but especially in the early years French rule was more popular then the Orange rule of before. After the French period when the House of Orange-Nassau was restored again it was decided to keep the red, but most people still today have an orange pennant hanging on it.

Date: 1572
Place: Not reall shure

I myself prefer the return of the Prince flag. Since it symbolizes our old Royal house and it just looks awesome and reminds me of the Dutch Golden Age.

Mosquito

On the begining in the medieval times we had such flag:








In the times of Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania we had this flag (in the center of the shield was usually the coat of arms of king who was reigning, in this case swedish Vasa) :








And since 1918 this:

Nemowork

I'm doing my best to take this subject seriously but i can't fight the urge to post Sheldon Cooper for much longer