The Greek Flag

The Greek flag is called "Galanolefci" which means "blue and white". Originally it was blue with a white diagonal cross. The cross is now situated in the upper left corner, and symbolizes the Christian faith.

The Greek flag, as it stands, adopted by the First National Assembly of Epidaurus, which was convened in 1822. The need to build a
certain flag for the new born state, was presented with the beginning of the Greek Revolution of 1821 and when the Greeks achieved their first victories against the Ottomans This was needed even as a means of rallying among all the groups and chieftains, who until then they had their own flags and pennants.



There are many speculations about the origins of the colours and the shape of the Greek flag. Some of them they say that the white and blue colour symbolized the uniforms of the revolution fighters (White kilts of fighters in the mainland and blue baggy trousers of the seafarers).

It is also said that the white symbolizes the foam of the waves and the blue the sky of Greece. In addition alleged that white
was the naval flag of the Greek islands, at the beginning of the revolution. Another speculation is that blue is the colour of the sea, and Greece being a seafarers country, it could hardly have any other colour. Blue is also a lucky colour, which will ward off evil according to superstition. White is the colour of freedom, and that is something the Greeks hold very dear after years of enslavement under the Turks. However, we can't say definitely from were came from the colours of the Greek flag.

The nine stripes each symbolize a syllable in the Greek motto of freedom: E-LEY-THE-RI-A-I-THA-NA-TOS, which translates Freedom or Death.
For the nine stripes there are also different opinions, of which the most appropriate is probably the one that says that in ancient times the number nine was sacred.