Flag of Galicia
Encyclopedia
The flag of Galicia was created in the 19th century as a copy of the flag of the Galician maritime province of A Coruña
A Coruña
A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...

.

Legend

During the 19th century many thousands of Galicians
Galician people
The Galicians are an ethnic group, a nationality whose historical homeland is Galicia in north-western Spain. Most Galicians are bilingual, speaking both their historic language, Galician, and Castilian Spanish.-Political and administrative divisions:...

 emigrated to the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

; A Coruña was the main Galician port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 from which they departed. Tradition has it that the Galician emigrants thought that the A Coruña naval flag flying on the emigrant ships was actually the flag of Galicia. Therefore, when they arrived to the new world they started flying the A Coruña naval flag, believing this to be the flag of Galicia. Years later, the flag crossed the Atlantic back to the homeland, where it was officially adopted as the new national flag of Galicia.

Design

Originally, the flag for the maritime province of A Coruña was a blue St Andrew's Cross
Saltire
A saltire, or Saint Andrew's Cross, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross or letter ex . Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross....

 over a white field – St Andrew is one of the most popular saints in Galicia, where 72 parishes are devoted to him. This flag closely resembled the flag of Scotland
Flag of Scotland
The Flag of Scotland, , also known as Saint Andrew's Cross or the Saltire, is the national flag of Scotland. As the national flag it is the Saltire, rather than the Royal Standard of Scotland, which is the correct flag for all individuals and corporate bodies to fly in order to demonstrate both...

 – an interesting coincidence considering that, according to legend, the Gaelic peoples of the British Isles originally came from Galicia.

In 1891 the St Andrew's Cross flag had to be modified because it was causing confusion with the flag of the Imperial Russian Navy
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...

. Hence, it was decided to drop one of the arms of the cross. The result was the modern Galician flag.

Specification

The law of symbols of Galicia (29 May 1984) regulates the official colours, proportions and uses of the Galician symbols. The national symbols of Galicia are the civil flag
Civil flag
A civil flag is a version of the national flag that is flown by civilians on non-government installations or craft. The use of civil flags was more common in the past, in order to denote buildings or ships that were not manned by the military....

, which is the blue and white flag, the coat of arms of Galicia, and the state flag
State flag
There are two separate meanings for the term state flag in vexillology – the flag of the government of a sovereign state, and the flag of an individual subnational state.-Government flag:...

, which is the result of adding the coat of arms over the civil flag.

The coat of arms of Galicia was actually the former flag of the Kingdom of Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia
The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...

 prior to the creation of the modern flag in the 19th century. In the early 1980s The Royal Academy of Galicia
Real Academia Galega
The Royal Galician Academy is an institution dedicated to the study of Galician culture and especially the Galician language; it promulgates norms of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary and works to promote the language. The Academy is based in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. The current president is...

  asked the Galician Government
Xunta de Galicia
The Xunta de Galicia is the collective decision-making body of the government of the autonomous community of Galicia, composed of the President, the Vice-President and the specialized ministers ....

 to incorporate the former flag of the Kingdom of Galicia onto the modern flag. The result of that suggestion was the State Flag. The State Flag features the Galician coat of arms over the common civil flag, and it is the official flag that must be displayed in all institutional events of the national and local governments in Galicia.

"The flag of Galicia shall have the official Coat of Arms when displayed on public buildings and institutional events in Galicia", Law 5/1984 of Symbols of Galicia, Article 2.2.

Other flags

socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 or communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

. That flag was created during the decade of the 1970s inspired on the flag of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

 and has been adopted as the official logotype of the Bloque Nacionalista Galego
Bloque Nacionalista Galego
The Galician Nationalist Bloc is a Galician nationalist coalition of political parties. It is self-defined as a "patriotic front".Formed in 1982, under the guidance of historical leader Xosé Manuel Beiras, the BNG advocates for further devolution of powers to the Parliament of Galicia and the...

 (Galician National Party).
  • Following the oil spill of the petrol tanker Prestige
    Prestige oil spill
    The Prestige oil spill was an oil spill off the coast of Galicia caused by the sinking of an oil tanker in 2002. The spill polluted thousands of kilometers of coastline and more than one thousand beaches on the Spanish, French and Portuguese coast, as well as causing great harm to the local fishing...

    off the Galician coast in 2002, Galician demonstrators used a Galician flag dyed in black with the phrase "Nunca Máis" (Never Again). This flag has become a very popular symbol for environmental activism in Galicia.

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