This Week In Vexillology #26

This week, we've got the Tango and Cash, the Laverne and Shirley, the Cagney and Lacey of the nations of the world.  That's right kids, put your hands together and give it up for one of the young countries of the world: Bosnia and Herzegovinia!   The current version of the flag (the one pictured above) was adopted on February 4th, 1998.

The yellow triangle represents a couple of things:  the three points stand for the three constituent peoples of Bosnia: Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks- but it also is representative of the shape of the country itself, which bears a passing resemblance to a triangle or a heart (indeed, I didn't know this but Bosnia is often referred to as 'the heart shaped nation..')  The stars are meant to represent Europe and they're meant to be infinite which is why they run continuously for the length of the flag.   The blue and the yellow were taken from the flag of the European Union and are also colors traditionally associated with Bosnia as well.

This is the second flag for Bosnia since independence in 1992.  The first one looked like this:

This flag was adopted on May 4th, 1992 for National and Civil usage.  The shield is taken from the arms of King Stephen Tvrtho who ruled the country before the Ottoman Empire conquered the area.   The fleur-de-lis recall family ties to the Anjous, who were the ruling dynasty of Hungary in the 14th Century.  After the Dayton Agreement in 1998, this flag was viewed as representing Bosniaks more than Croats and Serbs and so a design process began to change it into the current flag seen above.  (Wikipedia has a nice section on the alternative proposals considered under the re-design that's worth a peek.)

(For the political science majors out there, Bosnia is worth a look if only to understand it's somewhat unique structure.  The country is actually made up of two main federative parts, the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovinia and has a rotating triumverate for a Presidency.  Read this and dork out, fellow poli-sci nerds!)

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together and give it up for Bosnia and Herzegovinia!  And until next time, remember to keep your flags flying- FREAK or otherwise!