Use | National flag and civil ensign |
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Proportion | 2:3 |
Adopted | 12 March 1896 |
Design | A horizontal tricolour of yellow, blue and red with an arc of eight white five-pointed stars centred on the blue band. |
Designed by | Francisco de Miranda |
Use | State and war flag, state and naval ensign |
Proportion | 2:3 |
Adopted | 9 March 2006 |
Design | A horizontal tricolour of yellow, blue and red with the National Coat of Arms on the upper hoist-side of the yellow band and an arc of eight white five-pointed stars centred on the blue band. |
Designed by | Francisco de Miranda |
Use | Naval jack |
Design | A navy blue field charged with an anchor with seven five-pointed stars in an arc above it. |
The current national flag of Venezuela was introduced in 2006. The basic design includes a horizontal tricolour of yellow, blue, and red, dating to the original flag introduced in 1811, in the Venezuelan War of Independence.
Further modifications have involved including a set of stars, multiple changes to the placement and number of stars and inclusion of an optional coat of arms at the upper-left corner.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(January 2023) |
The flag is essentially the one designed by Francisco de Miranda for his unsuccessful 1806 expedition to liberate Venezuela and later adopted by the National Congress of 1811. It consisted of three equal horizontal stripes of yellow, blue and red. Miranda's flag is also the inspiration for the flags of Colombia and Ecuador. The flag of the short-lived Republic of Spanish Haiti was also based on Miranda's tricolore and resembles the current Venezuelan flag. This original design was first flown on 12 March 1806, at Jacmel, Haiti, as Miranda's expedition prepared to make the final leg of its voyage to Venezuela. The flag was first flown over Venezuelan soil at La Vela de Coro, on 3 August. Until 3 August 2006, Flag Day was celebrated in Venezuela on 12 March. Since 2006 it has been celebrated on 3 August.
Miranda gave at least two sources of inspiration for his flag. In a letter written to Count Semyon Vorontsov in 1792, Miranda stated that the colours were based on a theory of primary colours given to him by the German writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Miranda described a late-night conversation he had with Goethe at a party in Weimar during the winter of 1785. Fascinated with Miranda's account of his exploits in the United States Revolutionary War and his travels throughout the Americas and Europe, Goethe told him that, "Your destiny is to create in your land a place where primary colours are not distorted.” He proceeded to clarify what he meant by this:
"First he explained to me the way the iris transforms light into the three primary colours […] then he proved to me why yellow is the warmest, noble and closest to [white] light; why blue is that mix of excitement and serenity, a distance that evokes shadows; and why red is the exaltation of yellow and blue, the synthesis, the vanishing of light into shadow.
It is not that the world is made of yellows, blues, and reds; it is that in this manner, as if in an infinite combination of these three colours, we human beings see it. […] A country starts out from a name and a flag, and it then becomes them, just as a man fulfills his destiny."
After Miranda later designed his flag based on this conversation, he happily recalled seeing a fresco by Lazzaro Tavarone in the Palazzo Belimbau in Genoa that depicted Christopher Columbus unfurling a similar-coloured flag in Veragua during his fourth voyage. [1] [2] [ better source needed ]
In his military diary, Miranda gave another source of inspiration: the yellow, blue and red standard of the Burgers' Guard (Bürgerwache) of Hamburg, which he also saw during his travels in Germany. [3] The idea of the flag is documented in his 1801 plan for an army to liberate Spanish America, which he submitted unsuccessfully to the British cabinet. In it Miranda requested the materials for "ten flags, whose colours shall be red, yellow and blue, in three zones." [4]
The symbolism traditionally ascribed to the colours is that the yellow band stands for the wealth of the land, the red for courage, and the blue for the independence from Spain, or "golden" America separated from bloody Spain by the deep blue sea.[ citation needed ]
According to the current interpretation, the colours signify:
During the first half of the 19th century, seven stars were added to the flag to represent the seven signatories to the Venezuelan declaration of independence, being the provinces of Caracas, Cumaná, Barcelona, Barinas, Margarita, Mérida, and Trujillo.
After the Guayana campaign, Simón Bolívar added the eighth star to the national flag (the so-called Flag of Angostura) in the representation of the newly freed province. Bolívar issued the following decree:
The Law of the National Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem added the Coat of arms to the flag on February 17, 1954. The coat of arms was not incorporated into the Civil or Maritime Flag, which is intended for non-governmental purposes, such as civilian use, merchant craft, and international sports competition.
In November 2005, the President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez announced plans to add an eighth star to the flag of Venezuela to bring about a much-belated fulfillment to Bolívar's 1817 decree. The eighth star represents the Guayana Province, one of the Provinces of Venezuela at the time of the declaration of independence. The Coat of Arms was also changed to a white horse galloping left instead of cantering to the right, a bow and arrow, and a machete. Although the new flag was approved by the Venezuelan government, opposition spokesperson Óscar Pérez stated that they would not use the new flag. [6]
The new flag change is controversial for another reason, being that the eighth star represents the Guayana Province, which now belongs to modern-day the States of Amazonas, Bolivar, Delta Amacuro and two-thirds of Guyana, a country that Venezuela has ongoing tensions with over a border dispute of the entire region west of the Essequibo River, which was ruled in Guyana's favour by an international tribunal. [7] [8]
As with most other national flags, the Venezuelan flag should be flown every day by the legally registered public institutions from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. Private institutions, businesses, and citizens should fly the flag on national holidays or on days determined by the National Executive. Institutions which should fly the flag by obligation are:
There is currently no regulation as to the dimensions of the flag, its use inside private or public institutions or by the public in general, its form and protocol. The conventions that currently exist have been freely determined. Nevertheless, educational institutions currently follow a protocol modeled on the regulations issued for the armed forces for use in raising the flag on special days.
Out of respect for the flag, popular culture holds that upon raising the flag, the national anthem should be played and all civilians present should stand still, straight, with closed hands at the sides and without any headgear, while military and police personnel out of formation must salute.[ citation needed ]
Although there is no official regulation on the manner in which the flag should be folded, there is, as in other countries, a procedure with widespread acceptance in schools, scout groups, and military institutions. Its origins are not known, but there are several possibilities, such as the adoption of the custom from other South American nations, in which this singular way of folding a flag originated. In the Venezuelan case, there are two ways of folding the flag depending on whether it is a civil or state flag.
The flag has its own anthem, which was composed in 1889 with music by Francisco Araldi and lyrics by Zolessi Geronimo, which reads:
Himno de la Bandera | |
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Spanish | English |
Verse I | |
Oh, Bandera del pueblo Caribe | Oh, flag of the Caribbean people |
Verse II | |
Difundiste por cumbres y llanos | You spread throughout peaks and plains |
Verse III | |
Venezuela la hermosa y pujante | Venezuela, the beautiful and thriving |
Similarly, a Flag Oath has also been written for students to be said on 3 August, which is as follows:
Spanish | English |
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This is followed by the following pledge for those in schools:
Spanish | English |
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Versions of this oath and pledge are used for the National Armed Forces of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Policia Nacional Bolivariana, but in this case, only the pledge is used during graduation and passing out parades.
A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a given nation. It is flown by the government of that nation, but can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colours and symbols, which may also be used separately from the flag as a symbol of the nation. The design of a national flag is sometimes altered after the occurrence of important historical events.
The flag of Guatemala, often referred to as the National Pavilion or the Blue-and-White, features two colors: sky blue and white. According to decree, the two sky blue stripes represents strength, justice, truth and loyalty. The white color signifies purity, integrity, firmness and light. The blue and white colors, like those of several other countries in the region, are based on the flag of the former Federal Republic of Central America.
The national flag of Andorra features a vertical tricolour of blue, yellow, and red with the coat of arms of Andorra in the center. Although the three vertical bars may at first appear to be of equal width, the centre yellow bar is slightly wider than the other two so that the ratio of bar widths is 8:9:8 with an overall flag ratio of 7:10.
The national flag of the Plurinational State of Bolivia was originally adopted in 1851. The state and war flag is a horizontal tricolor of red, yellow and green with the Bolivian coat of arms in the center. According to one source, the red stands for Bolivia's brave soldiers, while the green symbolizes fertility and yellow the nation's mineral deposits.
The national flag of Cuba consists of five alternating stripes and a cherry red chevron at the hoist, within which is a white five-pointed star. It was designed in 1849 and officially adopted May 20, 1902. The flag is referred to as the Estrella Solitaria, or the Lone Star flag. It is in the stars and stripes flag family.
The national flagof Colombia symbolizes that the nation gained its independence from Spain on 20 July 1810. It is a horizontal tricolor of yellow, blue and red in a 2:1:1 ratio. The yellow stripe takes up a half of the flag while the blue and red stripes take up a quarter of the space each.
The national flag of Ecuador, which consists of horizontal bands of yellow, blue and red, was first adopted by law in 1835 and later on 26 September 1860. The design of the current flag was finalized in 1900 with the addition of the coat of arms in the center of the flag. Before using the yellow, blue and red tricolor, Ecuador's former flag had three light blue stripes and two white stripes with three white stars for each province of the country. The design of the flag is very similar to those of Colombia and Venezuela, which are also former constituent territories of Gran Colombia. All three are based on a proposal by Venezuelan General Francisco de Miranda, which was adopted by Venezuela in 1811 and later Gran Colombia with some modifications. There is a variant of the flag that does not contain the coat of arms that is used by the merchant marine. This flag matches Colombia's in every aspect, but Colombia uses a different design when her merchant marine ships are at sail.
The flag of El Salvador features a horizontal triband of cobalt blue-white-cobalt blue, with the coat of arms centered and entirely contained within the central white stripe. This design of a triband of blue-white-blue is commonly used among Central American countries. The country's flag is one of the few that currently use the color purple, due to the rainbow in its coat of arms.
The national flag of Panama was made by María de la Ossa de Amador and was officially adopted by the "ley 48 de 1925". The Panamanian flag day is celebrated on November 4, one day after Panamanian separation from Colombia, and is one of a series of holidays celebrated in November known as the Fiestas Patrias.
The Flag of Peru, often referred to as The Bicolour, was adopted by the government of Peru in 1825, and modified in 1950. According to the article 49 of the Constitution of Peru, it is a vertical triband with red outer bands and a single white middle band. Depending on its use, it may be defaced with different emblems, and has different names. Flag day in Peru is celebrated on 7 June, the anniversary of the Battle of Arica.
The flag of Spain, as it is defined in the Constitution of 1978, consists of three horizontal stripes: red, yellow and red, the yellow stripe being twice the height of each red stripe. Traditionally, the middle stripe was defined by the more archaic term of gualda, and hence the popular name la Rojigualda (red-weld). That middle stripe bears the Coat of Arms.
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 flag of Gran Colombia was based on Francisco de Miranda's Venezuelan tricolour which served as the national flag of the First Republic of Venezuela, It was served as the basis for the current flags of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, which emerged as independent nations at the breakup of Gran Colombia in 1831.
The national flag of Mexico is a vertical tricolor of green, white, and red with the national coat of arms charged in the center of the white stripe. While the meaning of the colors has changed over time, these three colors were adopted by Mexico following independence from Spain during the country's War of Independence, and subsequent First Mexican Empire.
The flag of the Second Spanish Republic, known in Spanish as la tricolor, was the official flag of Spain between 1931 and 1939 and the flag of the Spanish Republican government in exile until 1977. Its present-day use in Spain is associated with the modern republican movement, different trade unions and various left-wing political movements.
The coat of arms of Gran Colombia was adopted in 1821.
The flag of the president of Colombia consists, like the flag of Colombia, of a rectangle in yellow, blue and red triband in a 2:1:1 ratio, meaning three horizontal stripes, with yellow at the top occupying half the width of the flag, blue at the bottom. middle occupying a quarter of the width and red below, occupying the last quarter, finished off in the central part with the coat of arms of Colombia.
The Color and Flag of the President of Colombia shall consist of three horizontal bands, with yellow occupying half of the upper part, and the other two colors the other half, divided into equal bands, blue in the center and red in the lower part, as well as the Coat of Arms in the central part. The proportions of the elements of the Coat of Arms will be in direct relation to the hoisting, and the flight will vary according to the customs of the military and naval services.
Flag families are sets of national flags with similarities in their design, often based on a shared history, culture, or influence. Families do not include flags with coincidental similarities. Flags may be in multiple flag families. Only twelve current national flags existed before the 19th century, when large-scale flag use began. Seven of these flags are the inspiration for more than 130 current national flags and ensigns.
The flag of La Guaira, one of the 23 states of Venezuela, has six stripes – two horizontal on the hoist side, and four vertical. The blue horizontal stripe is a third of the height of the white horizontal stripe. In the centre of the white horizontal stripe there is a symbol of a glowing sun with a humanized face, whilst in the blue horizontal stripe there are four white five-pointed stars.
Adapted from text of Ricardo Silva Romero