Every Day Is Special: National Flag Day

Showing posts with label National Flag Day. Show all posts

April 25 – National Flag Day in Swaziland

(Edited to say that, around the same time I was writing this post, unbeknownst to me, the absolute ruler of Swaziland, King Mswati III, decided to rename the country. A few days before I actually posted this, he made his announcement that the nation would change its name to eSwatini. I missed the publicity around this change; apologies!)

Posted on April 25, 2018

Waaaaaaay back in 1881, the British government signed a declaration that said that Swaziland was an independent nation. This was a period of time when there was such a lot of hurried effort by European nations to divvy up and control various parts of Africa, historians call this period "the Scramble for Africa." Against the trend of grabbing control from the locals, in this case the Brits said, "This is THEIR nation."

See that red dot near the southern end of Africa?
That's Swaziland!

Except....year after year...(after year!) the British and Dutch weighed in on mineral rights and land ownership, and they formed three-way governments with Brits, Dutch, and Swazi officials, and then they formed protectorates through the Republic of South Africa. And it turned out that Swaziland really wasn't fully independent. Despite that signed piece of paper...

Finally, almost a century later, Swaziland got its independence. On this date in 1967, the flag was flown for the first time. Actual independence was achieved in September 1968.

The symbolism of the flag is:

Red for past battles

Blue for peace and prosperity

Yellow for Swaziland's resources

The Nguni shield is black and white to show that black and white people can live in harmony in Swaziland. The shield and two spears also recall Swaziland's history.

Take a look at Swaziland's land:

Also on this date:

DNA Day

Anzac Day

Astronaut Frank De Winne's birthday

World Penguin Day

Anniversary of the first seeing-eye dog in the U.S.

Liberation Day in Italy

Freedom Day in Portugal

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

August 3 – National Flag Day in Venezuela

Posted on August 3, 2017

Flags are often very simple - just one to five colors, often in two or more horizontal or vertical stripes. Many include crosses of various sorts - up-and-down crosses, diagonal crosses, or both. Some include stars or crescents, or even complex figures such as Mexico's eagle-on-a-cactus or Swaziland's shield-and-spears.

And of course, there is generally a story behind each nation's flag. The colors, stripes, stars, etc., generally stand for something.

Venezuela's primary-colored flag has an interesting story:

Flag designer Francisco de Miranda had an interesting discussion with German writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Goethe told him that he thought that Miranda's destiny was to "create in your land a place where primary colors are not distorted."

You may remember that yellow, blue, and red are called primary colors because all other colors of paint can be created from these three, plus white and black. Goethe said that the world is not made up of primary colors, but that human beings see the world in these three colors plus all the colors made from the infinite combinations of these colors. Somehow Goethe drew a parallel to a country starting out with a name and a flag and then becoming whatever it becomes - fulfilling its destiny.

The symbolism of the three colors has two explanations:

(1) The yellow stands for the wealth of the land, the red stands for courage, and the blue stands for independence from Spain.

OR

(2) The gold of America is separated from bloody Spain by the deep blue sea.

Miranda designed the flag for an 1896 expedition; it was first flown on March 12, 1806 - but in Haiti. (For more than a century, Flag Day was March 12.) The flag was first flown in Venezuela on August 3, 1806. (Since 2006 Flag Day has been August 3.)

The flag was adopted by the National Congress in 1811.

Soon after than, seven stars were added to represent the seven signers of the Venezuelan declaration of independence. Here are the variations of placement of the stars:

1817 - 1819

1830 - 1836

1836 - 1859

1859 - 1863

1863 - 1905

1905 - 1930

Variant of current flag, with coat of arms in corner

Also on this date:

Independence Day in Niger

Anniversary of the “discovery” of the La Brea Tar Pits

Watermelon Day

Anniversary of the discovery of a Neanderthal

Anniversary of the first watercraft to reach the North Pole

Anniversary of a Messianic figure rejecting the role

Plan ahead:

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September holidays
September birthdays
Historical anniversaries in September

May 2 – National Flag Day in Poland

Posted May 2, 2015

Poland's Flag Day was created only a few years ago (in 2004). It celebrates the end of the Battle of Berlin in World War II – actually, pretty much the end of Nazi Germany. On this date in 1945, the Polish Army raised the Polish flag on the Berlin Victory Column.

Like many national flags, Poland's flag is a simple two-color design. And like many nations, Poland has had to fight off or overthrow invaders more than 40 times from 1600 to modern times!

In the late 1700s, Poland was in the forefront of some modern reforms. For example, in 1773 King Stanislaw II established the first government education authority in Europe. A decade later Poland became the first nation in the entire world to prohibit corporal punishment (paddling and whipping, for example) in all schools. Finally, Poland's May 3 Constitution (1791) was the first set of modern national laws in Europe...But the constitution was only in place for less than a year and a half before Russian Empress Catherine II deemed Poland a problem and started the Polish-Russian War.

Here are some cool or fun things to know about Poland:

Not sure if it's true, but I read in several places that the average grocery store in Poland has larger candy sections than any other section.

The Wawel castle was built in the 1300s and currently displays the only piece of the Polish Crown Jewels that still exists: the “Jagged Sword.” The sword is called “jagged” because it has a notch or slit designed to hold a small shield. The blade is not jagged – it's smooth and straight.

By the way, the awesome Jadwiga,
who was crowned KING (not queen)
of Poland at age 10,
lived in the Wawel castle.

The Slowinski National Park is on the Baltic coast, and it has wetlands, wildlife, and moving sand dunes. One thing people like to do there is sandboard!

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is pretty amazing – there is an underground “city” carved out of the rock salt, including this chapel, which is supposed to have better acoustics than any other structure in Europe! Also, the salt mine is considered one of the oldest companies in the world, because salt has been mined from it continuously since the 13^th Century.

(Yeah, that's the 1200s – more than 700 years!)