Flag of Greece

Flag origins

Greece’s flag combines nine blue-and-white horizontal stripes with a white cross on blue in the upper left. The Foreign Ministry explains blue as sea and sky, white as the purity of the independence struggle, the cross as Christianity and the nine stripes as the nine syllables of Eleftheria i Thanatos — Freedom or Death. Blue and white became national colors at the First National Assembly at Epidaurus in 1822, the year after war against Ottoman rule began.

Flag story

The striped flag was not initially Greece’s sole national flag. In 1822, the land flag was a simple white cross on blue, while the naval flag resembled the present striped design with a cross in its canton. The modern national flag thus grew from a flag used at sea. Its memorable nine stripes correspond to Freedom or Death, the independence movement’s slogan from the war begun in 1821, an association also given by the government.

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.

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

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