Every Day Is Special: April 27 - Flag Day in Moldova

April 27 - Flag Day in Moldova

Posted on April 27, 2019

When you consider that France is more than 1,500 years old, the United States of America at age 243 seems relatively young. But then there are all these nations that arose during the breakup of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia. They can count their nations in their current forms only as far back as 1990 or 1991 or so - which means that these nations are less than 30 years old!

Moldova is one of those recent nations. It was one of the Soviet Socialist Republics, and it declared independence in August of 1991.

But Moldova seems more like Romania than like Russia / the Soviet Union:

Above, flag of Moldova.
Below, flag of Romania.

The official language of Moldova is often called Moldovan, but it's also called Romanian - because it IS Romanian.

Traditional costumes and foods from Moldova and Romania are very similar or, in some cases, exactly the same.

All of these similarities are easily explained because the region of Romania that is closest to Moldova, called Moldavia, used to actually include Moldova. So often we have seen, in world history, a region with a particular language and culture being cut up by other powers.

The area in brighter pink and orange, along with Moldova in
red, made up what historically was Moldavia.
Now the red part is the independent nation of Moldova;
there are bits of Moldavia that are part of Ukraine, and
the bulk of Moldavia is part of Romania.