The Swedish Flag

The Swedish flag in it’s current form goes back to the late 1400s. Gustav Vasa was the first regent to carry the blue flag with the yellow cross. The colors came from the Folkunga dynasty. A powerful and ruling dynasty for hundreds of years. Many chieftains and kings came from their ranks. Their family crest was a golden lion on a blue shield. This was later used, with the addition of three golden crowns as the national coat of arms before the cross flag was created. The cross design of all the Nordic countries, comes from the Danish flag. Widely believed to be the oldest national flag in the world, the legend states that it fell from the sky onto King Valdemar II in the year of 1219 during a crusade against Estonian heathens. The cross design was widely used during the crusades, mostly by the Templar Nights who carried a white banner with a red cross as their symbol. Norway who was under Danish rule for 400 years, also had their flag. When they formed a union with Sweden in 1814, a blue cross was added to separate them from the Danish flag. During the union with Sweden, the Swedish flag had in it’s upper left corner the “union- sign”. A mix of both flags. Red, yellow, white and blue. The Norwegians disliked this very much and called it the “herringsalad” or “sillsalaten”. After the dissolvement of the union in 1907, Norway retained it’s flag and the union sign was taken of the Swedish one. Iceland who started out independently, soon fell under both Norwegian and later Danish rule. It did not regain it’s independence until1944. The Icelandic flag was created in 1915. Blue and white are the national colors, but because they were still a part of Denmark, a red cross was added. Finland’s flag was created in 1918, after independence was gained from Russia. It had already been used in various forms by Finnish merchant ships since the mid 1800s, in an effort to separate themselves from the Russian ships who were often attacked by their enemies. The white is for the snow and the blue is for the many lakes. It could be added that the island of Åland, although technically a part of Finland, has self rule and a flag of their own. It is a blue flag with a yellow and a red cross. The colors are combined from Åland’s and Finland’s coat of arms, and was officially recognized in 1954. Flags were never used by ordinary people, but always only by kings and queens, until the turn of the 20th century. King Oscar the II of Sweden had thousands of flags made up and shipped to schools all over Sweden, so all children would know what the Swedish flag looked like. Similar efforts were made in Norway at the celebration of it’s independence in 1907. The same happened in Finland in 1918. Soon production was high, and lots of people used national flags. And so, the idyllic picture of the flag waving over the summer cottage is really quite recent. Today in the Nordic countries, racism has reared it’s ugly head, and stolen the national symbols for it’s own cause. People have become fearful of displaying the flags for fear of being mistaken for racists. Debate continues and some people put them up instead as symbols of freedom and tolerance.