The 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.

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.

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.