Flag of Belarus

Flag origins

Belarus’s flag has red above green, with a red traditional ornament on white beside the hoist. Red symbolizes the courage and sacrifices of those who defended the homeland’s freedom. Green represents forests, the land, life and hope. The hoist pattern draws on the geometric ornament of the rushnyk, a traditional woven cloth. Government specifications also describe it as red Belarusian national ornament on a white field.

Flag story

The red-and-white ornament is based on an actual traditional rural textile, not an arbitrary decoration. Its prototype is commonly attributed to a rushnyk woven by Matrona Markevich in 1917, with a traditional design inspired by plants and flowers. Such ceremonial cloths are used at weddings, religious occasions and bread-and-salt welcomes. The ornament entered the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic’s flag in 1951. After the Soviet collapse, Belarus briefly used a white-red-white flag. Following a referendum in 1995, it adopted a design based on the Soviet-era flag, without the hammer, sickle and red star and with the ornament’s colors changed.

Editorial notes and references

Edited by ABELHA WORKS. The English text translates the administrator-edited Japanese description. Legends should be distinguished from documented history. General reference links do not substantiate every statement in the text.

• Belarus — general information on Wikipedia
• Japan MOFA: countries and regions (Japanese)

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