Although it has undergone various changes, the tricolor of Romania has kept the same colors since the first decades of the 19th century.
One of Romania’s flags from the 19th century, the arrangement of colors being horizontal
Celebrated on June 26, National Flag Day was proclaimed 26 years ago by Law no. 96 of May 20, 1998. The choice of the date was not accidental, but a tribute to the Revolution of 1848, the year in which the Provisional Government of Romania established, by Decree no. 1 of June 14/26, that the national flag has three colors – red, yellow and blue, and the flags must have the motto “Liberty, Justice, Fraternity” written on them.
Then, for the first time, a meaning was attributed to colors, so that red symbolized brotherhood, yellow signified the wealth of the fields, and blue represented freedom. However, the placement of colors was horizontal, not vertical, as it is today. Almost 180 years away, the country’s flag still keeps the same colors, but in a different order, starting from the lance: blue, yellow, red.
Tudor Vladimirescu’s tricolor tassel
The use of the three colors – red, yellow and blue – as a symbol of national unity actually dates back to Tudor Vladimirescu’s Revolution of 1821. The proclamation made by the revolutionary on January 23, 1821, in Padeș, was made under a flag that had a tassel in three colors. So some historians believe that this represents the first evidence of the Romanian tricolor. A few decades later, the flag of this revolution would enter the national heritage through a festive event during which it was handed to the military and civil authorities of the city of Craiova. The handover was made by Ion Cacalțeanu, a former captain in the revolutionary army from 1821, his family being one of those that kept the banner from 1821. The flag had been made by the monk David, at the Antim Monastery in Bucharest, on his instructions Tudor Vladimirescu and Bishop Ilarion of Argeș, mentor of the revolutionary.
“The rectangular canvas consists of yellowish silk faces, of which only some parts are preserved, on which the traces of the painting are visible, mostly destroyed, and of the blue silk lining, better preserved; everything is tucked into double tulle. The painting, now very damaged, originally represented the Holy Trinity, with on the right St. Teodor Tiron, the patron saint of Sluger T. Vladimirescu, and on the left St. George, considered the bringer of victory; under the Holy Trinity, inside a wreath of laurel leaves, a black, outlined, crucified eagle was rendered, with the wing down – embodying the coat of arms of the Wallachia – under which was the date “1821 Ghenarie”, written in Cyrillic letters, as well as the verses what framed the coat of arms”is the description of the flag published on the official website of the National Heritage Institute.
The beginnings of the National Flag
The history of the National Flag begins more than a decade before the Revolution of 1848. In fact, the one who initiates the use of this symbol (but not as a national flag at that time) is the lord of the Walloon Region, Alexandru Ghica Vodă. He asks Sultan Mahmud II to approve the flying of his flag by the army, land militias or warships. So, following the pronouncement of the hatisherif (decree issued by the sultan), the flag with equal bands arranged horizontally, the order of colors being from top to bottom: red, yellow, blue, is approved. Also, in the center of the flag, mostly on the yellow color, was a crowned crowned eagle, holding a mace and a sword in its claws, surrounded by an oval wreath of oak and laurel leaves, and in the corners eagles were painted.
Later, with the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848, the Romanian revolutionaries will proudly fly the flag with the colors arranged vertically starting with blue at the base. The first to use the flag as a national symbol were the revolutionaries in Paris, on February 24, 1848. Later, the flag would also appear in Moldova, on March 27, at the Petersburg Hotel in Iasi, at the Constituent Assembly chaired by Vasile Alecsandri.
Also, the tricolor was hoisted at the Blaj Assembly from 3/15 May to 5/17 May 1848 – where the flags have the bands arranged horizontally, but the color in the middle was white. Later, white was replaced by yellow to highlight the Transylvanian Romanians’ desire for unity and the flag was carried by Ioan Cavaler de Pușcariu, called the “National Flag”, at the National Assembly on May 3/15. “I, who was carrying the great flag of the nation, went up with him to the chair (stand) where the speeches were held, from here, Bărnutiu taking the national oath, I had the unique sight of seeing heads uncovered and hands raised for the oath , around forty thousand people. This national flag – on which the words “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” were written in gold letters – was prepared in Sibiu, in a national conference where the colors were chosen: blue, white and red, the predominant colors at the Romanian port”notes Ioan Cavaler de Pușcariu in “Notes about contemporary events” (1913).
The flag of Romania in the period 1965 – 1989
Consecration of the pasoptist revolutionary flag
With the escape of Mr. Gheorghe Bibescu of Romania, the new provisional Government considers the adoption of a national flag as a symbol of national identity and unity an absolute necessity. Through the decree issued on June 14/26, 1848, the National Flag was established with three colors arranged equally, red being the first color from top to bottom. The following day, the consecration of the flag takes place in a large gathering that takes place on Filaret Plain (Liberty Plain). But only in 1859, with the double election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the tricolor officially became the national flag, by the decree given in 1861. “The flag is Romania! This blessed land of the homeland, sprinkled with the blood of our ancestors, enriched with the sweat of the Romanian peasant and worker. It is the family, everyone’s field, the house where our parents and children were born. The flag is the symbol of devotion, faith, order and discipline that the army represents. The flag is always the past, the present and the future of the country, the entire history of Romania. In a word, the national flag represents all the victories and all the military virtues that are contained in the two words chiseled on the Roman eagles: honor and homeland”, claimed the ruler, according to the Zalău County Museum of History and Art. Initially, until 1862, the color blue was placed at the top, and later the arrangement of colors was changed, with red being at the top.
The vertical arrangement of colors came with the establishment of Prince Carol I at the head of the Romanian Principalities, blue being the flag. Even the vexicological rules of the time for tricolor flags stipulated that the darkest color should be next to the flagpole. In fact, the Assembly of Deputies established in the meeting of March 26, 1867 the arrangement of the colors, as well as the fact that the coat of arms of the country was to be placed in the center only on the army and princely flags, but not on the civil ones.
Later, over time, the flags were decorated according to which sovereign ruled Romania, and those of the military units, and according to military actions or successes. With the establishment of the communist regime, the country’s coat of arms was replaced by one containing Soviet socialist elements, undergoing minor changes throughout the more than 50 years of communism. Only on the occasion of the 1989 Revolution, the coat of arms of the Socialist Republic of Romania would be removed from the tricolor as a symbol of liberation from the dictatorial regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. A few days later, on December 27, Decree-Law no. 2 stipulates that “the country’s flag is the traditional tricolor of Romania, with the colors placed vertically, in the following order, starting from the lance: blue, yellow, red”.
