Seven centuries old Georgian flag

As the historians say, the flag has an important role and purpose in the history of one nation. It symbolically reflects the dignity of the country. The Georgian flag is the oldest in the world, after the flag of Denmark. In this article, I am going to tell you about our flag that is seven centuries old.

History

The flag that we have today comes from the 13th century. However, after that period, Georgia was divided into different parts, and each region had its own flag. That is why the flag that has five crosses was forgotten. In years 1918-21, after Georgia became independent, they opened this topic about the flag again. In that period, the design of the flag was different as it had a logical meaning - describing the country’s victory. It was a three-color flag: dark red, black and white. Dark red meant the history of Georgia, the blood that was spilt in the battles for survival. Black and white colors were the symbols that the country was reunited. However, Georgia could not enjoy its independence for a long time. After several years, due to the creation of the Soviet Union, the flag was changed again. It was filled with the symbols of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, Georgia became independent again, and the three-color flag was returned.

Picture © Credits to AlxBaev

A flag with five crosses

From 2003, after the ‘Revolution of Roses’, the government decided to change the flag again. Finally, everybody agreed that it was time to get back to our original, oldest flag. Our Parliament approved the flag from the 13th century without any changes. However, in the beginning, there were some problems. The image of this flag, which was found in Tbilisi, was in the black and white colors. So they could not understand whether it was a flag of Georgia or not. In order to determine this, the representative of Georgia traveled to Paris to check the Museum of the national maps. He explored two types of maps that were dated back to the 14th century. On those maps, there were the fortresses with the inscription of ‘Tiflis’ (Tbilisi) and the flag with five crosses. Therefore, this made him sure that the black and white flag truly belonged to Georgia.

Picture © Credits to Racide

As you see, five crosses are depicted on the white background. The biggest cross symbolically represents Christ, and four little crosses are the angels that bring happiness. The white color shows the innocence, purity and wisdom, while the red color represents courage, justice and love. When you come to Georgia, I would like to suggest you visit the Ozurgeti History Museum, located in the Ozurgeti City. In this museum, you can see different interesting exhibitions of working tools, weapons and paintings. In addition, there is the national coat of arms and Georgian flags. You will see the Georgian flag from the Soviet times, as well as old Georgian flag and the flag with five crosses that we have today.

Ozurgeti History Museum

Ozurgeti, Georgia

Picture © Credits to MicroStockHub

The Georgians love this flag as it symbolically represents the history of our country. We celebrate the independence day of Georgia on the 26 of May. This year, we proudly celebrated the 100th year of independence and many leaders of different countries supported us by displaying our seven-centuries old flag.

Video © Credits to Geography Now