Wednesday, January 30, 2002

Ikurriña: The Basque Flag

Here you have an image of the Basque flag, better known as Ikurriña or Ikurrin:





And an explanation I found at this page:

Ikurriña

The Ikurriña, flag designed by the founders of the Basque Nationalist Party EAJ-PNV Luis and Sabino Arana, is regarded as the national symbol of Euskal Herria, or the Basque country.

The flag was designed in 1894 to represent the province of Biscay and was adopted as the flag of the whole autonomous Spanish community of the Basque Country . It is now also commonly used in the French Basque Country, Iparralde.

The Ikurriña has a white cross and a green saltire across a red background, the green St. Andrew's cross might represent the Oak of Guernica a symbol of the old laws of Bizkaia, the white cross represents Catholicism and was also found behind the Oak in the Heraldic arms of Bizkaia, and the red background represents the Basque people (originally, the Biscaynes).

The red background and vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines show some similarity to the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Navarre. Some sources say that the design was inspired by that of the British union flag.

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