The Legend of Romanian Tricolour

Short  Romania's History

Romanians  have  lived for 2 mileniums in 3 diferent lands/countries, but they were unified through the ortodox faith, which has created an unique language and also an unitary tradition, and after all an unitary state.

The 3 Historical Romanian Provinces: Transilvania, Moldova and Wallachia

The Great Union of Michael the Brave 1600

The Great Union Of Moldavia and Valachia Alexandru Ioan Cuza – 1859, January 24th

December 1st  - Romanias National Day

Romania, nowadays

Saint Andrew – The Patron of Romanians

St. Andrew

On November 30th Romanians celebrate Saint Andrew (Andrei) – who is considered the protector of Romania. Saint Andrew is known as the one who Christianized  our  ancestors. In the evening of St. Andrew’s Day  all the family members put some grain seeds to germinate. 

St. Andrew's green grains

The plants which grow the most beautiful and tall it is said  will give its owner a good and a healthy  year. The Day of November  30th is also know as  the Wolf’s Day. Wolves gain more power, and people should protect their animals and homes with garlic. The night of November 30th is a special night. The witches  pick the magic plants for their future spells. 

The legend of Romanian Flag

Liberty = sky blue
Justice = field yellow
Fraternity = blood red


1. Merger Legend

After 1860, a legend arose stating that the national tricolor had been formed by merging the colours of the Moldavian and Wallachian flags, probably out of a desire to reconcile all parties to the fact that the Wallachian revolutionary flag of 1848 had been chosen for all of Romania.

This legend was also convenient with respect to the colours attributed to the two principalities’ flags at the time (red and blue for Moldavia and blue and yellow for Wallachia).

Constantin Lecca - Moldavians and Muntenians become brothers

Another painting of Lecca shows the assassination of Michael the Brave in 1601. Also depicted is the united standard of the three provinces, with yellow on top (Wallachia), red in the middle (Moldavia) and blue below (Transylvania).

2. The Story of Romanian Tricolour

In 1821, when the revolutionary leader Tudor Vladimirescu called all the brave warriors to fight for freedom, a man, named Dragomir joined them. 

Tudor Vladimirescu

He had 3 daughters, who gave him 3 handkerchiefs: one yellow, one blue and one white. The white one was from the younger daughter, and Dragomir kept this one close to his heart. One day, Dragomir was severely injured in the battle. The white handkerchief became red because of his blood. He died, and his colleagues found his 3 handkerchiefs: one red, one yellow, and one blue. Those brave warriors took the 3 handkerchiefs and put them like a flag on a stick - in the honour of Dragomir. They fought for the Independence and for the Union of Romanians under the three colours of the flag - which became the Romanian National Flag.

Romanian  Flag  before  1989

Romanian  Flag  in December 1989

Romanian  Flag  - nowaday

DOODLE* – for Romanian National Day December 1st 2009

The search engine Google has had several logos. Some special logos have become known as Google Doodles.

The  National Tricolour's Day is celebrate in Romania on June 26th.

The Story of Turkish Flag

The current design of the Turkish flag is directly derived from the late Ottoman flag, which had acquired its final form in 1844. It is known that the Ottomans used red flags of triangular shape at least since 1383, which came to be rectangular over the course of history. Ottomans used several different designs, most of them featuring one or more crescents, for different purposes, such as the flag with green background signifying the caliphate. During the late imperial period, the distinctive use of the color red for secular and green for religious institutions became an established practice.

In 1844, the eight-pointed star was replaced with a five-pointed star and the flag reached the form of the present Turkish flag; Red was the colour of Umar I, the Caliph who ruled from AD 634 to 644 and was known as a great consolidator of the Islamic Empire. In the 14th century red became the colour of the Ottoman Empire. The crescent and star is the symbol of Turks.

A legend says that in 1071, after the Battle of Manzikert and the defeat of the Byzantine army, the Seljuk Khan, Alp Arslan was roaming the battlefield where he saw the reflection of the crescent moon and the star on a pool of blood of Turkish warriors. After he saw this image, he decided that this would be the flag representing the Turks.       

LA CITTA DEL TRICOLORE

The Legend of Catalan Flag

The Catalan flag has a name and a history. It is one of the so called heraldic flags that come out of the creation of a cloth from the arms of the Counts of Barcelona. Though it is possible that the flag, or the pennant, is in fact before the time of the arms themselves. There is no historical reference until documents of the XIII century, but we know it is one of the most ancient ones of Europe. Perhaps one of the oldest pennants in Europe this is from 1306.

At first the bars of the arm were represented vertically and then horizontally. Finally it was the horizontal form that became its final form and the official flag of the Catalan nation. A flag with five yellow bars and four red ones, all of the same size. It was made official in the Estatut d'autonomia de Catalunya of 1979.

The popular legend about the origin of the flag says that it was Guifré el Pelós in the IX century who created it. He started the glorious house of Barcelona that then reigned for more than 500 years over Catalunya.

In one particular battle, a victory over the Normandos, his prize at the end of the battle was a shield, with a gold background, from the king Charles el Calb. The legend says that the king Charles, with his own hands, painted the shield with his fingers still covered in blood from the Count of Barcelona's wounds, with the four red bars it has now.

Modern historical investigations have shown that this is not true, but most people prefer the legend.

The Polish White Eagle

A thousand years ago, or maybe even more, there lived three brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus. For many years they had been content in their villages, but the families grew larger and they needed more room to live.

The brothers decided to travel in different directions to search for new homes. Lech, Czech, and Rus traveled with their troops for many days. They rode their horses over mountains and rivers, through forests and wild country. There were no people to be found anywhere, not a town or tiny village. On the crest of a mountain top, they separated, each going in a different direction. Czech went to the left, Rus went to the right and Lech rode straight ahead, down the mountain and across vast plains.

One day Lech saw a splendid sight. He and his troops had come to a place where a meadow surrounded a small lake. They stopped at the edge of the meadow as a great eagle flew over their heads. It flew around in great swooping circles, then perched on its nest, high on a craggy rock. Lech stared in awe at the beautiful sight. As the eagle spread its wings and soared into the heavens again, a ray of sunshine from the red setting sun fell on the eagle's wings, so they appeared tipped with gold, the rest of the bird was pure white.

"Here is where we will stay!" declared Lech.
"Here is our new home, and we will call this place GNIEZNO ... (the eagle's nest).

He and his people built many houses and it became the center of his territory. They called themselves Polonians, which means "People of the Field". They made a banner with a white eagle on a red field and flew it over the town of Gniezno, which became the first historical capital of Poland.  And, now you know how Poland began .