Hungary’s flag is made up of three vertical stripes of color with red at the top, white in the mid section and green at the lower section with a width-to-length ratio of 2:3. It was adopted as the country’s flag on 23rd May 1957. This flag is the same as that of United Kingdom’s Republican Movement. Officially, it is known as the Flag of Hungary.

The flag of Hungary’s design is said to originate from Republican idealists while the colors are borrowed from the mid ages. The tricolor feature of the flag is influenced by the flag of France, indicating that it was inspired by concepts of the French revolution. The colors are derived from Hungary’s coat of arms, with the stripes made horizontal to prevent any similarity with the flag of Italy which imitates the endorsed flag of France. The colors are said to have had different romantic meanings attributed to virtues with red meaning strength, white signifying faithfulness and the last color green, intended to represent hope. In other representations, red has been said to symbolize blood shed for Hungary, white sovereignty and green the grasslands and the land of Hungary. The latter interpretation is what is made official by the constitution that was effective as from 1st January 2012.

As said before, the flag of Hungary was greatly inspired by the French revolution. However, the colors, red, white and green, have been in use since the 13th century. The three colors were mentioned in the 1608 coronation of Mathias II. This flag was, as a result, the revolution against Habsburgs, after which it was made the official flag.

Much of Hungary’s history was spent under Turkish and Australian domination. In 1848, a short-lived republic tried restoring the traditional arms and colors and these became part of the Austrian merchant flag in 1869. After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, Hungary kept it as its national flag. The coat of arms was displaced in 1949 but during the 1956 revolution, this coat of arms was dropped again and the traditional arms which were also removed after the revolution’s suppression. A new coat of arms was made but wasn’t added to the flag.

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018

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