This Week In Vexillology #72

You know, I've got another shocking confession to make.  According to this recent quiz on Buzzfeed, this is the European country where I belong and its another European country that I know far, far too little about.   That's not to say I don't know anything.  It's capitol is Riga.  There.  I know that.  (Oh and thanks to the Winter Olympics, I know they're really good at bobsled, luge, skeleton, slide-y type of winter sports.) So buckle up everybody because this week in vexillology, we're hopping south across the border from Estonia right next door to it's neighbor, Latvia.

Adopted February 27th, 1990 (hey, Happy Flag Day, Latvia- though I guess they don't have an official flag day.   Boo!) for national and civil usage.  There are two interpretations to the meaning of the flag.   One says that the red represents the Latvians' willingness to defend their liberty- another, more interesting interpretation says that a Latvian leader was wounded in battle and the red recalls the blood he shed, while white represents the color of the sheet he was wrapped in.

Who was the Latvian leader in question?   No one seems to know- but this flag has been in use since the 13th Century which makes it one of the oldest flags in the world- and the interpretation about the wounded Latvian leader seems to date back before 1279, when Latvian tribes from the city of Cesis went to war bearing a red flag with a white stripe.   As with Estonia, Latvia had been invaded by various people over the centuries (Swedes, Poles and Russians among them) and enjoyed a brief period of independence between World War One and World War Two before falling under Soviet domination and breaking free again along with the other Baltic States as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990.

So there we have it- the flag of Latvia!  And remember, until next time, keep your flags flying- FREAK or otherwise.