Colors on foreign flags

Factual Questions
1

I was watching TV early this morning and saw a picture of the French flag. I noticed that it too contained red, white, and blue. I figured that this probably stood for something different than the America’s red, white, and blue but itgot me wondering:

Are there any general rules for determining the color and symbols on a countries flag?
Do the colors have universal meaning?

I envisioned some small country’s government picking colors out of a hat after the break up of the USSR. Don’t ask me why.

2

There’s a huge reference you should know about, if you’re curious about anything to do with flags:

http://fotw.vexillum.com/flags/

That’s actually one of many mirrors for for “Flags of the World”

Here is their blurb on the origin of the French tricolor:

http://fotw.vexillum.com/flags/fr.html#ori

And there are general design “rules” for construction of flags that are more often ignored than observed, especially since there is obviously no body to enforce the standards. And what we are talking about here is more like graphical design standards, not use of symbols.

(There are heraldic standards on the meaning of symbols and the use of colors, which I’m sure somebody is going to bring up. In the modern world, very little relevence is left to them)

I think it safe to say that, in practice, colors do not have any universal significance, since a brief perusal of some of those pages will reveal some VERY obscure symbolism in some flags, as well as some which were produced because somebody thought a particular color or design just looked nice. Flags are one area where the entity producing the flag has an enormous latitude for self-expression. Sort of like corporate logos, except the only means for enforcing copyright is to have a war, when you get right down to it.

We had a long thread in IMHO on the various state flags:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=75243

3

Well, the red in the flags of the USSR and PRC stand for communism, while the red in the British flag comes from St. George’s cross. I think it also often represents valor, being the color of blood.

4

I could be wrong but IIRC telling a Frenchman that his/her flag is ‘red, white and blue’ is a good way to get into a fight (especially if it is an American saying it). As I understand it the French will go out of their way to point out that their flag is, in fact, blue, white and red.

A small thing perhaps but it seems important to them.

5

PART of the red - the current Union Jack is composed of the crosses of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick. The diagonal red cross is the cross of St Patrick. BTW, it is offset within the white diagonals to make it clear that those diagonals are an element of the flag (the cross of St Andrew), and not just a border separating the red and blue.

6

Knowing how long the Franco-British ‘relationship’ has been going on, I can’t help thinking that the reason the French refer to their flag as BLUE WHITE AND RED is because the British refer to theirs as RED WHITE AND BLUE

:smiley:

7

The Norwegian flag is another red/white/blue one, for two reasons. (Norwegians will describe their flag as red, white and blue, in that order. There’s even a patriotic song, Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått.)

First, the red and white are the colors of the Danish flag, and the blue was supposed to represent the colors of the Swedish flag, although the two shades of blue are in fact distinctly different. This, together with the basic cross shape, reflected the historical and cultural ties between the Scandinavian nations. (Iceland and Finland did not exist as independent nations at the time.)

Secondly, the United States, Great Britain, and France had for the time unusually progressive governments, which the Norwegian nationalists hoped Norway would soon copy. By coincidence all three nations had flags with those three colors.

The double symbolism made the choice of colors a natural.

8

The red and blue in the French flag are taken from the colors of the city of Paris, where the revolution started. The white was added to indicate the pure intent of the revolution, is my understanding.

I always guessed they say “blue, white and red” because that’s the way the colors appear on the flag, going from left to right. I know they get touchy about it, which is kind of silly. On the other hand, describing the American flag as “blue, white and red” or “white, red and blue” or what have you is just bizarre to me, so maybe they’ve got a point.

9

I hoenstly wonder how many flag colours were chosen because they looked cool, and the “meaning” behind them was made up afterwards.

Canada’s red and white flag is a great flag - it’s simple but unique and striking. Red and white have been Canada’s colours for longer than the maple leaf flag has existed - but in truth, WHY they’re our colours is lost to history. You’ll find a hundred different explanations.

10

There are several groups of colors with trans-national meanings. Green, yellow, and red, sometimes also with black, are Pan-African colors; for examples, see the flags of Benin, Congo (Brazzaville), Guinea, Mali, Senegal, and (with black as well) Ghana and Guinea-Bissau.

Red, white, and black, usually also with green, are Pan-Arab colors; see Egypt and Yemen, and (with green as well), Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, or Syria.

Green by itself is a symbol of Islam, as on the flag of Saudi Arabia. Red, as already mentioned, is symbolic of revolution in general, and Communism in particular.

The red, white, and blue combination is (in addition to its meanings to Americans or Frenchmen) the color combination of Pan-Slavism: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Russia (actually, I believe the white, blue, and red combination orginated with the Russians, with various explanations of what the colors stand for, and was then adopted elsewhere as a symbol of Pan-Slavism because those were the colors of Mother Russia, the leading Slavic state), Slovakia, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia, with Bulgaria using a variant which substitutes green for the usual blue.

I wonder if the ambassadors from some of these African, Arab, or Slavic nations ever get confused? Especially at the U.N., or at meetings of the OAU or the Arab League.