Last modified: 2005-08-06 by ivan sache
Keywords: greece | ellas | europe | cross (white) | jack | coat of arms (national) |
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Flag adopted 22 December 1978, coat of
arms adopted 7 June 1975.
Description: Nine horizontal stripes, alternately blue and
white; a white cross on a blue square field in canton.
Proportion: 2:3
Use: on land, civil, State and war flag, at sea,
civil, State and war ensign.
Colour approximate specifications (as given in Album des Pavillons [pay00]):
On this page:
See also:
The striped flag has been in use since 1822, and was approved in 1832.
The nine stripes are said to stand for the nine syllables of the Greek patriots' motto:
Ελευθερια η Θανατος (Eleutheria ê Thanatos), meaning "Freedom or Death".
This motto is now the national motto of Greece.
Paul Adams, 19 June 1995
The simple white-cross-on-blue flag dates from 1822, and was used as an alternative national flag, but only in land, not at sea. Only the striped flag was used at sea.
From June 1975 until December 1978 the plain cross flag was used as the only national flag. The situation is now reversed, and the striped flag is now the only official national flag, although the cross flag can still be seen in unofficial use.
Paul Adams, 19 June 1995
There is no officially prescribed shade of blue for the Greek flag
in the 1978 law. The
1970 law that abolished the plain cross
flag did not specify a particular shade either, but it did provide
that all flags should conform with "prototype" flags lodged with two
government departments.
The shade of blue on the prototypes was, probably, very dark hence
the very dark shade of flags made in 1970- 1975. A lighter shade of
blue is used nowadays (by convention, presumably) but still not as
light as United Nations blue.
Yannis Natsinas, 14 November 2000
The Greek jack is a blue square flag with a white cross throughout. The width of the cross is 1/5th of the hoist width.
Source: Album des Pavillons [pay00]
Željko Heimer, 10 October 2001
Source: Album des Pavillons [pay00]