Flag of the Dominican Republic

The national flag of the Dominican Republic is one of the official national symbols of the nation, along with the coat of arms and the national anthem. The blue on the flag stands for liberty, the white for salvation, and the red for the blood of heroes. The civil flag follows the same design, but without the charge in the center, which is the coat of arms of the Dominican Republic. The flag was designed by Juan Pablo Duarte.

Fandom flags:Dominican_Republic

Description

As described by Article 21 of the Dominican Constitution, the flag features a centered white Saint George's Cross that extends to the edges and divides the flag into four rectangles; the top ones are blue and red, and the bottom ones are red and blue. The national coat of arms, featuring a shield with the flag, design and supported by a bay laurel branch and a palm frond, is at the center of the cross. Above the shield, a blue ribbon displays the national motto Dios, Patria, Libertad. Below the shield, the words República Dominicana appear on a red ribbon. In the center of the shield, flanked by three spears on each side, is a Bible with a small Latin cross above it and said to be opened to the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 32, which reads Y la verdad os hará libres. It is one of 28 national flags to contain overtly Christian symbols.

Color scheme	Blue	Red	White
RGB	0,45,98	206,17,38	255,255,255
Hexadecimal	#002D62	#CE1126	#FFFFFF
CMYK	100 - 54 - 0 - 62	0 - 92 - 82 - 19	0 - 0 - 0 - 0

History

The island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean was discovered by explorer Christopher Columbus during his first voyage on December 5, 1492. Landing on the northwestern coast of the island in present day Haiti, he established La Navidad, the first European settlement in the Americas. During his second voyage in 1493, he established La Isabela, the first stable European settlement in the Americas, on the north-central coast of the island in present day Dominican Republic, after La Navidad was destroyed by the native Taíno people.
Sponsored by the Catholic Monarch of Spain, Columbus claimed Hispaniola for the Spanish Empire, the first European power to conquer and colonize the island. Concentrated in the eastern part of the island, the Spanish established the colony of Santo Domingo and its eponymous capital, the city of Santo Domingo, by 1496. After the Devastations of Osorio in 1605, the western part of the island was depopulated, facilitating the establishment of the colony of Saint-Domingue by the French Empire, beginning with the settlements of Tortuga in 1659 and Cap-Haïtien in 1670.
In 1804, the successful Haitian Revolution against France resulted in establishment of the First Empire of Haiti, the first independent country in Latin American. After the overthrow of the Haitian elective monarchy, the flag of Haiti was adopted by the succeeding Republic of Haiti in 1806. Featuring the coat of arms of the country over a blue and red horizontal stripe, the Haitian flag was based on the flag of France, a vertical tricolor of blue, white, and red adopted during the French Revolution against its ancien régime or absolute monarchy in 1794.
After gaining independence as the Republic of Spanish Haiti in 1821, the eastern colony of Santo Domingo was soon occupied and annexed by the Haitians, uniting the entire island of Hispaniola as the Republic of Haiti from 1822 to 1844. With the establishment of revolutionary organization of La Trinitaria in 1838, which successfully fought against Haiti to liberate Santo Domingo as the independent First Dominican Republic, the flag of the country was first introduced. It featured a centered white cross, like the regimental flags of the Kingdom of France, over a horizontal blue stripe on top and red stripe on the bottom, like the flag of Haiti.
Designed by Juan Pablo Duarte, the Father of the Nation, it was first hoisted on February 28, 1844, the day after the beginning of the Dominican War of Independence against the Haiti. The ultramarine blue represented the protection of God over the country. The vermillion red color represented the blood shed by the patriots in the struggle for freedom of the country. The white cross in the center symbolized the peace and unity of the people of the country, Dominicans. The first flags were made by María Trinidad Sánchez, María de Jesús Pina, Isabel Sosa and Concepción Bona.
The flag was used until the four-year annexation of the Dominican Republic into the Spanish Empire from 1861 to 1865, during which period it was replaced by the flag of Spain. With the restoration of independence as the Second Dominican Republic, the flag was reintroduced with some changes. The coat of arms of the country was placed in the center of the flag at the intersection of the white cross, like the flag of Haiti. The position of the blue and red quarters on its fly side was also flipped, creating an alternating pattern, like the French regimental flags. The addition of the coat of arms, which consists of a bible opened to John 8:31–32 above a cross and the motto Dios, Patria, Libertad, further reflected the Christian ideals of Duarte.

Use

The use of the Dominican flag is essentially regulated by, which regulates the use of the national symbols of the Dominican Republic. This law stipulates the following:

The front side of the flag is the one in which the blue quarter is on the observer's left.
The flag will never touch the ground.
The flag will be flown every weekday on all official state buildings and offices, from sunrise to sunset.
The flag must not be displayed in poor condition.
It is the duty of every Dominican to display the flag on national holidays.
When the flag is flown next to another, it must always be on the right.
When the flag is flown vertically, the blue quarter in the upper corner, which is attached to the thick edge of the halyard, should be on the observer's left.
When the flag is placed horizontally on a wall, the flag shall be hung so that the upper blue quarter, which is attached to the right edge of the halyard, is to the observer's left.

Specific occasions

On days officially declared as national mourning, the flag is first raised to the top of the flagpole and then lowered to half-mast. The coffins of members of the Armed Forces and high-ranking public officials are covered with the National Flag. The celebration of Flag Day was first established in Official Gazette No. 5231 of May 1938, during the rule of Rafael Trujillo. It declared October 24th as Flag Day, Generalissimo Trujillo's birthday. Once the Trujillo Era ended, Law 6085 of October 22, 1962 established February 27, the Dominican Independence Day, as the national flag day.

In music and poetry

The poet Gastón Fernando Deligne composed a poem in honor of the Dominican flag called "Arriba el Pabellón". Note that stanzas 7, 8, and 9 discuss the meaning of the flag's colors:

Spanish
El rojo de su gloriosa

decisión dice al oído,

Soy - dice - el laurel teñido

con su sangre generosa.
Es el azul de su anhelo

progresitas clara enseña

color con que el alma sueña

cuando sueña con el cielo.
El blanco póstumo amor

a sus entrañas se aferra

dar por corona a la guerra

el olivo al redentor.
English
The red of his glorious

decision whispers in your ear,

I am, it says, the laurel dyed

with his generous blood.
It is the blue of your longing

progressive, a clear banner of

colour with which the soul dreams

when it dreams of the sky.
The white posthumous love

clings to its depths,

giving as a crown to war

the olive branch to the redeemer.

There is also a national anthem to the flag for schools.