National flag of Greece

National flags suitable for both outdoor and indoor use.

Made of special polyester material with increased UV and weather resistance.

Intense and vivid colors, with excellent front/rear visibility.

Polyester Material:

• 100% polyester, weight 110 gr/m2
• The material is treated as fire-resistant class B

The material is printed using the latest generation technologies with water-based ecological ink.

The edges are finished with a double perimeter hem, and in the attachment part there may be:

• pylon/handle pocket
• reinforced tape and plastic carabiners, for attaching to the mast
• Fasteners: metal grommets/eyelets

The national flag of Greece, popularly referred to as the "blue and white one" (Greek: Γαλανόλευκη, Galanólefki) or the "sky blue and white" (Κυανόλευκη, Kyanólefki), is officially recognised by Greece as one of its national symbols and has nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white. There is a blue canton in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white cross; the cross symbolises Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The blazon of the flag is Azure, four bars Argent; on a canton of the field a Greek cross throughout of the second. The official flag ratio is 2:3. The shade of blue used in the flag has varied throughout its history, from light blue to dark blue, the latter being increasingly used since the late 1960s. It was officially adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus on 13 January 1822. The nine stripes do not have any official meaning; the most popular theory says that they represent the syllables of the phrase Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος ("Freedom or Death"), the five blue stripes for the syllables Ελευθερία and the four white stripes ή Θάνατος. The nine stripes is also said to represent the letters of the word "freedom" (Greek: ελευθερία). White and blue symbolise the colours of the Greek sky and sea.

Historical background

The origins of today's national flag with its cross-and-stripe pattern are a matter of debate. Every part of it, including the blue and white colors, the cross, as well as the stripe arrangement can be connected to very old historical elements; however, it is difficult to establish "continuity", especially as there is no record of the exact reasoning behind its official adoption in early 1822.

It has been suggested by historians that the current flag derived from an older design, the virtually identical flag of the powerful Cretan Kallergis family. This flag was based on their coat of arms, whose pattern is supposed to be derived from the standards of their claimed ancestor, Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas (963–969 AD). This pattern (according to not easily verifiable descriptions) included nine stripes of alternating blue and white, as well as a cross, assumed to be placed on the upper left.^[4] Although the use of alternating blue and white - or silver - stripes on (several centuries-old) Kallergis' coats of arms is well documented, no depiction of the above described pattern (with the nine stripes and the cross) survives.

Colours

The government has not specified exactly which shade of blue should be used for the flag, and as such flags with many varying shades exist. In the most recent legislation regarding the national flag, the colours mentioned are:

Because of the use of the word 'cyan' (Greek: κυανός, Kyanos), which can also mean 'blue' in Greek, the exact shade of blue remains ambiguous. Although it implies the use of a light shade of blue, such as on the flag of the United Nations, the colours of the Greek flag tend to be darker, especially during the dictatorship and in recent years, with the exception of the years of the rule of King Otto, when a very light shade of blue was used. Consequently, the shade of blue is largely left to the flagmakers to decide, as shown in the table below.