Flag of Hungary

How to read it

Article I of the Fundamental Law, in force since 1 January 2012, says the flag has three horizontal bands of equal width, red, white and green from top to bottom, as the symbols of strength, fidelity and hope, and that the coat of arms and the flag may also be used in other historical forms. Act CCII of 2011 on the coat of arms and the flag governs their use: the flag flies permanently on or in front of the public buildings of Parliament, the President, the courts, central government bodies, the armed forces and local councils, and on national holidays it is raised with military honours in front of the Parliament building. The flags at Parliament, the Constitutional Court, the Curia and the offices of the President and the Prime Minister are lit from sunset to sunrise. A government decree of 2000 gives the sizes of flags on public buildings as 100 × 200 cm, 150 × 300 cm and 200 × 400 cm (about 3 ft 3 in × 6 ft 7 in to 6 ft 7 in × 13 ft 1 in), twice as long as they are high. The flag goes back to the revolution of 1848 and was officially adopted in its present form in 1957, Store norske leksikon says.

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Hungary’s and Italy’s flags side by side

They share green, white and red. Italy’s constitution has them in three vertical bands, green by the pole; Hungary’s run across, red at the top. Bulgaria’s flag has the same colours across in another order, white at the top and green in the middle. Tajikistan’s is red, white and green from the top like Hungary’s, but its white stripe is twice as wide as the others and carries a gold crown under an arc of seven stars, Store norske leksikon says.

Strength, fidelity and hope

The constitution’s reading of the colours is an old one. Popular romantic interpretations saw red as strength, white as fidelity and green as hope, or else red for blood shed for the fatherland, white for freedom and green for the country’s lush countryside, Store norske leksikon says, and the constitution of 2012 made the first reading official. The colours are those of Hungary’s medieval arms; the revolutionary flag of 1849 was inspired by the French tricolour. They may have been used at coronations as far back as 1608. A coloured engraving of Leopold II’s coronation at Pozsony (now Bratislava) in 1790 shows the wall behind the throne draped in red, white and green.

The flag with a hole

From 1949 to 1956 the flag carried the communist state emblem, and during the uprising of 1956 it was so hated that people cut it out of the flag, Store norske leksikon says. The arms in use since 3 July 1990 are a split shield: eight bars of red and silver on one side, and on the other a silver double cross rising from a gold crown on three green hills, all under the Holy Crown, as the Fundamental Law describes them.