Flag of Paraguay

How to read it

Article 139 of the 1992 constitution names the flag of the Republic (pabellón de la República), the national seal and the national anthem as the symbols of the Republic, and leaves to a law whatever the resolution of the Extraordinary General Congress of 25 November 1842 did not settle. That 1842 law describes three horizontal stripes, red, white and blue, with the national arms on one side, a palm and an olive branch around a star inside the words “República del Paraguay”, and on the other side a circle with the words “Paz y Justicia” and a lion at the foot of the symbol of liberty. The present details come from Decree 11.400 of 15 July 2013: three stripes of equal size, a length to height as close as possible to 1 to 0.55, and red and blue as “primary colours” without any mixture. Each emblem is a circle with its lettering in black on a plain ring a twelfth as wide as the circle. On the front the star is yellow, with no circle around it; on the back the lion sits in profile facing the viewer’s right, roaring, with its tail raised, and behind it a pike carries the red Phrygian cap. The decree dates the first raising of the flag to 15 August 1812, and Paraguay keeps Flag Day on 14 August.

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Why the two sides are different

Paraguay’s flag carries two different emblems, one on each side, which the Asunción newspaper Hoy calls unique in the world. ABC Color writes that Paraguay’s is one of only three national flags whose two sides are not the same, with Saudi Arabia’s and Moldova’s. Both emblems go back to the 1842 law, which put the national arms on one side and the Treasury seal (escudo de Hacienda) on the other.

Paraguay’s embassy in Japan explains the parts. On the front, the star is hope, the morning star that lit the struggle for independence in May 1811; the circle is God, who has no beginning or end; and the palm and olive are the glories of Paraguay through its history. On the back, the lion is the people and the Paraguayan soldier, brave and ready to defend their freedom; the cap of liberty is freedom and the republican character of the people; and the pike is their warrior virtue.

Paraguay’s and the Netherlands’ flags side by side

The Netherlands’ flag is red, white and blue in horizontal stripes in the same order, with nothing on it. The round emblem in the white stripe is what tells Paraguay’s apart, and it is different on the back.