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Proportion | 2:3 |
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Adopted | 1 February 1995 (current version) |
Design | Dark red background with its coat of arms on it |
The flag of Moscow , the capital of Russia, is a dark red banner of arms charged as the arms of the city in the centre. It displays Saint George wearing armor and a blue cape with a golden lance in his right hand riding on a silver horse. He is shown stabbing a zilant with the lance. The legend in which the flag came from originated in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend .
The flag was adopted on 1 February 1995. The proportions are 2:3.
The national flag of Denmark is red with a white Nordic cross, which means that the cross extends to the edges of the flag and the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side.
A chevron is a V-shaped mark or symbol, often inverted. The word is usually used in reference to a kind of fret in architecture, or to a badge or insignia used in military or police uniforms to indicate rank or length of service, or in heraldry and the designs of flags.
The national flag of Sweden consists of a yellow or gold Nordic cross on a field of light blue. The Nordic cross design traditionally represents Christianity. The design and colours of the Swedish flag are believed to have been inspired by the present coat of arms of Sweden of 1442, which is blue divided quarterly by a cross pattée of gold. Blue and yellow have been used as Swedish colours at least since Magnus III's royal coat of arms of 1275.
The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys, is a common heraldic charge in the shape of a lily. Most notably, the fleur-de-lis is depicted on the traditional coat of arms of France that was used from the High Middle Ages until the French Revolution in 1792, and then again in brief periods in the 19th century. This design still represents France and the House of Bourbon in the form of marshalling in the arms of Spain, Quebec and Canada, for example.
In a legend, Saint George—a soldier venerated in Christianity—defeats a dragon. The story goes that the dragon originally extorted tribute from villagers. When they ran out of livestock and trinkets for the dragon, they started giving up a human tribute once a year. This was acceptable to the villagers until a princess was chosen as the next offering. The saint thereupon rescues the princess and kills the dragon. The narrative was first set in Cappadocia in the earliest sources of the 11th and 12th centuries, but transferred to Libya in the 13th-century Golden Legend.
The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is most widely recognized as the national symbol of Canada.
The coat of arms of Belgium bears a lion or, known as Leo Belgicus, as its charge. This is in accordance with article 193 of the Belgian Constitution: The Belgian nation takes red, yellow and black as colours, and as state coat of arms the Belgian lion with the motto UNITY MAKES STRENGTH. A royal decree of 17 March 1837 determines the achievement to be used in the greater and the lesser version, respectively.
The coat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted in 1998, replacing the previous design that had been in use since 1992 when Bosnia and Herzegovina gained independence. It follows the design of the national flag. The three-pointed shield is used to symbolize the three major ethnic groups of Bosnia, as well as allude to the shape of the country.
The official coat of arms of the Republic of Costa Rica was designed in 1848, with modifications in 1906, 1964, and 1998. The latest change was the addition of smoke to distinguish the three volcanoes.
The Senyera is a vexillological symbol based on the coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon, which consists of four red stripes on a yellow field. This coat of arms, often called bars of Aragon, or simply "the four bars", historically represented the King of the Crown of Aragon.
The conjoined representation of a crescent and a star is used in various historical contexts, including as a prominent symbol of the Ottoman Empire, and in contemporary times, as a national symbol by some countries, and as a symbol of Islam. It was developed in the Greek colony of Byzantium ca. 300 BC, though it became more widely used as the royal emblem of Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator after he incorporated Byzantium into his kingdom for a short period. During the 5th century, it was present in coins minted by the Persian Sassanian Empire; the symbol was represented in the coins minted across the empire throughout the Middle East for more than 400 years from the 3rd century until the fall of the Sassanians after the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century. The conquering Muslim rulers kept the symbol in their coinage during the early years of the caliphate, as the coins were exact replicas of the Sassanian coins.
The coat of arms of Egypt is known as the Republican Eagle or Egyptian Golden Eagle, is a heraldic golden eagle, facing the viewer's left (dexter). The eagle's breast is charged with an escutcheon bearing the red-white-blue bands of the flag of Egypt rotated vertically, whilst the eagle's talons hold a scroll bearing the official name of the state written in Kufic script. The earliest version of the Eagle of Saladin was that used as the flag of Saladin, the first Sultan of Egypt, whilst the modern version of the eagle was adopted during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Subsequently, the modern design of the eagle of Saladin was adopted as the coat of arms of numerous other states in the Arab World, such as the United Arab Republic, North Yemen, Iraq, South Yemen, the Libyan Arab Republic, and Palestine. The current eagle was modified in 1984 to its present form.
The current coat of arms of Venezuela was primarily approved by the Congress on April 18, 1836, undergoing small modifications through history, reaching the present version.
The coat of arms of Portugal is the main heraldic insignia of Portugal. The present model was officially adopted on 30 June 1911, along with the present model of the Flag of Portugal. It is based on the coat of arms used by the Kingdom of Portugal since the Middle Ages. The coat of arms of Portugal is popularly referred as the Quinas.
The coat of arms of Fiji is the heraldic device consisting of a shield divided quarterly by Cross of St. George and charged with a gold lion at the top, supported by two Fijian warriors, one on each side, and topped with a canoe as the crest. Adopted in 1908 by a Royal Warrant, it has been the coat of arms of Fiji since that year, having been retained after independence in 1970. The escutcheon from the arms is featured on the flag of Fiji.
Attributed arms are Western European coats of arms given retrospectively to persons real or fictitious who died before the start of the age of heraldry in the latter half of the 12th century. Once coats of arms were the established fashion of the ruling class, society expected a king to be armigerous. Arms were assigned to the knights of the Round Table, and then to biblical figures, to Roman and Greek heroes, and to kings and popes who had not historically borne arms. Individual authors often attributed different arms for the same person, although the arms for major figures eventually became fixed.
The coat of arms of the Republic of South Sudan was adopted in July 2011 following independence from the Republic of Sudan. Prior to independence, South Sudan was an autonomous region of Sudan.
The national symbols of Mexico are the flag, the most coat of arms and the anthem. The flag is a vertical tricolor of green, white, and red. The coat of arms features a golden eagle eating a snake on top of a cactus.
The coat of arms of Mexico is a national symbol of Mexico and depicts a Mexican (golden) eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus devouring a rattlesnake. The design is rooted in the legend that the Aztec people would know where to build their city once they saw an eagle eating a snake on top of a lake. The image has been an important symbol of Mexican politics and culture for centuries. To the people of Tenochtitlan, this symbol had strong religious connotations, and to the Europeans, it came to symbolize the triumph of good over evil.
In heraldic achievements, the helmet or helm is situated above the shield and bears the torse and crest. The style of helmet displayed varies according to rank and social status, and these styles developed over time, in step with the development of actual military helmets. In some traditions, especially German and Nordic heraldry, two or three helmets may be used in a single achievement of arms, each representing a fief to which the bearer has a right. For this reason, the helmets and crests in German and Nordic arms are considered essential to the coat of arms and are never separated from it.