Flag of Ecuador

How to read it

A legislative decree of the Congress, given on 31 October 1900 and signed by President Eloy Alfaro on 7 November (Registro Oficial No. 1272), fixes both the arms and the flag. The flag is to be, “without any alteration”, the one Ecuador adopted when it proclaimed its independence: yellow, blue and red in horizontal stripes, in that order from the top, the yellow stripe twice the width of each of the others. Flags on national buildings, warships and fortresses, and those of Ecuador’s diplomats and consuls abroad, carry the national arms in the centre over the yellow and blue, and the army uses the same flag. Merchant ships and private citizens fly the plain tricolour. Municipal buildings fly a third form, with a circle of white stars on the blue, one for each province. The tricolour had been restored by Gabriel García Moreno’s decree of 26 September 1860, and 26 September is Flag Day.

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Ecuador’s flag and Colombia’s

Without the arms, Ecuador’s flag is the same design as Colombia’s: Colombia’s flag law also puts yellow across the top half, then blue and red at a quarter each. The flag that Ecuadorian merchant ships and private citizens fly is the plain tricolour, so the arms tell the two apart only on official flags. Ecuador’s tricolour is the one it flew as part of Gran Colombia, first raised on Ecuadorian soil on 25 May 1822, the day after the Battle of Pichincha, El Universo says. Venezuela’s yellow, blue and red flag has three equal stripes and an arc of eight white stars.

The arms, piece by piece

The 1900 decree describes an oval shield. In its upper part is the sun, with the part of the zodiac holding the signs of the memorable months of March, April, May and June. Below, on the right, is the Chimborazo, from which a river rises, and where the river is widest there is a steamship with a caduceus for a mast, “as a symbol of navigation and trade”. The shield rests on a bundle of consular fasces, for republican dignity, is decorated with national flags and branches of palm and laurel, and is crowned by a condor with spread wings.

El Universo explains the parts. The condor stands for energy and effort. The signs, Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer, mark the months in which the Junta of Guayaquil fought Juan José Flores. The river is the Guayas, which rises from the Chimborazo’s snows, and the ship is the first steamship built in South America, at Guayaquil’s shipyards in 1841; its colours and its flag at the bow are those of the national flag.