Flag of Greece

How to read it

Law 851 of 1978, on the national flag, the war flags and the President’s distinguishing mark (Government Gazette A 233, December 1978), says the national flag is blue and white and made of nine horizontal stripes of equal width, five blue and four white, with blue stripes at the top and bottom. In the upper corner by the staff is an upright white cross with equal arms, reaching the four sides of a blue square that covers, from the top, three blue stripes and two white ones. The arms of the cross are as wide as a stripe, and width to length is 2 to 3. The First National Assembly at Epidaurus adopted the blue and white flag on 13 January 1822, CNN Greece says, and the 1978 law fixed its present form.

Also searched as: flag of greece, greece flag, greece flag meaning, greek flag, greek flag meaning.

What the nine stripes stand for

No law says. The law fixes the design and leaves the symbolism open. CNN Greece lists the readings in circulation. One version has the nine stripes standing for the nine syllables of “Eleftheria i Thanatos” (Freedom or Death); another, reaching back to ancient Greece, has them for the nine Muses. For the colours it reports the blue of the sky and the white of the foam of the waves, the colours of the goddess Athena’s robe, and the white kilt (fustanella) and blue breeches of the fighters of the revolution of 1821.

The cross

At the start of the revolution of 1821 there was no single Greek flag; each leader had his own war banner. The cross was common to most of them, CNN Greece says, because under Ottoman rule and through the revolution the symbol of Christianity united the Greeks. The flag of nine stripes and the cross gradually replaced the separate banners after 1822.

How the law says it is flown

The flag flies every day from eight in the morning until sunset at the Presidency of the Republic and the Hellenic Parliament, at embassies and consulates, at public and municipal buildings, at schools during the school year, at military units and on warships and merchant ships. On public holidays every building, public or private, homes included, has to fly it during the same hours. The law requires fast-dyed cloth and forbids flying a flag that is worn, faded or printed.