What Happened to the Old Finnish Flag?
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- Finland is a country situation in the east of Scandinavia and is at the very north of Europe. Its flags are both influenced by the predominant Scandinavian flag design, the Nordic cross, as is the Finnish lion on the coat of arms.
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Funnily enough, most of the flag designs shown in the end weren't made for a referendum to choose the flag, but they are different designs proposed for the flag before 1917 by newspapers or influencial figures, along with designs used by some private citizens on their property.
Yes, there is no way anyone would suggest a flag that would feature the small Russian flag after obtaining the independence. You can read the years (1863 etc) when the proposals were introduced in that picture even if you don't understand Finnish.
HA! Less is more as every modern designer or artist knows.
Therefore the Finnish flag - sinilippu - is the best! Clean and modern.
@@catharinaholm6035 Siniristilippu
13:09 that flag at the bottom right is still in use as the Finnish war flag. It has a swallowtail design, which means it has those three triangle shaped bits at the right side that were named after swallowtail birds' wing shape and it still has the coat of arms in it.
was going to comment that he had left out the 3rd official Finnish flag
cool i was gonna say that
@@olavsantiago And there's special official versions of these flags, one for president, minister of defence, one for the commander of the defence forces (which by default is the president), and one for the commander of the navy. And let's not forget the burgee (yacht club flag) which has to be applied for officially.
@@McSlobo Commander of Finnish Defense Forces is not the president. President is commander in chief, but Commander of FDF(Chief of Defense) is currently General Timo Kivinen.
I like this flag design over the others
The Finnish flag is straightforward without extra frills. Perfectly suited to the general temperament of the people it’s representing.
As a Finn, absolutely.
Personally, I'd say we have valued actions and work showing a person's ability, rather than talking about it.
When it comes to social temperament, there's the story of the first time two Finns met each other in the middle of a forest: they looked at each other, turned around, and left. :)
Ofc, this is just my personal feeling... far from hard fact.
This makes it the best flag out of the northern cross flags. The colours as well represent the temperament of its people.
Eh.. stupid boring christian cross flag. Never liked it. Should be changet.
@@Viso333 to what? Do you want it to have hk sininen and karjala logo also?
@@Verhotanko46lol no... i dont know i dont care. Just not fan of scandinavian christian cross flag. So boring.
One aspect that might have been missed is the position of Svecomans vs Fennomans. I haven't looked into this myself, so I am not certain of it. However, I've been told that early into Finland's independence movement, the Svecomans preferred the red and yellow colour scheme, while the Fennomans preferred the blue and white. Presumably, this is because the Svecomans wanted to appeal to ideas of tradition and history under Swedish rule, while the Fennomans wanted something more unique and original to Finland.
I believe there were also some suggesting it to be a white cross across a blue background, but it wasn't chosen over concerns of it being mistaken for the Swedish one from a distance.
@@jokemon9547 This was also a concern but another reason for this was that Greece already had adopted a white cross on a blue background as it's flag.
As a curiosity, the Swedish-speaking student's union Teknologföreningen uses red and yellow as its colours.
@@jattikuukunen Indeed, the red and yellow flags and pennants are sometimes used among the Swedish speaking Finns. There are at least red/yellow pennants, for the Swedish speaking parts of Ostrobothnia and Finland Proper.
Actually, the flag was at first a red background with a golden lion, in 1917 but was changed to the white with blue cross because the White belligerents (and victors) of the civil war realised that the red flag would be confused for that of the Red belligerents (the losers who wanted a communist Finland) and thus the flag was changed. The ”old” flag referred to in this video is still in use and is the official state flag, the blue cross without a red square with golden lion is just the ”normal” flag.
Haven’t watched the video yet so sorry if this was all made clear in the video.
7:45 Finland DID actually adopt a lion flag based on the coat of arms for a few months. It was changed because it resembled too much of the red flag of the red guards that were defeated in the Finnish Civil War and also because blue and white were felt as the national colours (especially among the Finnish speaking population) even before Finnish independence.
Other explanation says it was because Finland was supposed to be a Monarchy but had to choose Republic in the end. I find it more believable since the soviet "blood flag" hadn't earned its name yet.
@@aleks5405 It had nothing to do with the Soviet flag, which did not exist yet. But it had plenty to do with the plain red flag used by revolutionaries everywhere, including Finland. After the reds had lost a bloody civil war in Finland, the red flag the rebels had used was considered unsuitable.
Also, the timeline does not match with the monarchy theory. Finland replaced the lion flag with the blue cross flag already in May 1918, but the crown of Finland was offered to a German prince in October 1918, who declined after Germany lost in WWI.
The lion flag does survive as a Finnish symbol however in the lyrics of a popular patriotic song, Jääkärimarssi, which refers to Finland's lion flag being carried by the sinewed arms of the jaegers.
@@aleks5405 As cccpike said, your explanation doesn't make sense because the lion flag was changed to the blue cross flag way before the monarchy consept was abandoned.
Thank you for putting in that extra bit of effort and pronouncing foreign names and words really well✅ Nice video, greetings from Finland🇫🇮
I’ve always loved the Finnish flag. It’s striking in simplicity.
sama/same :)
Kiitos
"..the snow that covers Finland during the winter... and the other seasons"
So true 😄
eipä ollu
@@AkseliRantala Tiedät itsekin että ei tarvitse olla talvi suomessa että voi tulla lunta tai räntää :P
"The Finnish summer is short and has low levels of snow"
(looks at wet rainy January weather)... If only...
@@lottaraatikainen3942 to quote band Mokoma. "The winter is long and it includes the summer"
Maybe the current Finnish flag is a bit boring but I like the simple elegance of it. Maybe it's because I'm Swedish but I like the typically Nordic minimalism and I also like the fact that all Nordic flags have similar designs.
Christianity in the Nordic countries provided the basis also for the use of the cross on the Finnish flag.
@@NikolaiYlirotu Yeah obviously?
During independence we used a red flag with the lion in the middle for a very short time. In the history department building in Helsinki they have put one of the original flags on the wall. This particular flag flew over the Sea fortress Viapori (modern Suomenlinna) during the independence.
Yes, in fact the flag is shown in the top-left corner at 12:50. It reads "The Lion Flag from the beginning of the [20th] century was the symbol of government during the first months of our independence."
As mentioned in the civil war song Vapaussoturin Valloituslaulu:
"Viaporin linnahan leijonalippu
Jukoliste, poijat, me nostetahan!"
@@64ankka Also "Sen leijonalippua jääkärien käsivarret jäntevät kantaa..." from Jääkärimarssi.
I was with my mom taking my brother's cat to the vet and I saw the State Flag flown outside the vet, because there was a local police station in the same building. It was really handsome flag, I of course took couple of pictures of it. 🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
Karelian coat of arms makes me thirsty for some BEER BEER!!
Me 2. Luckily i have some still in my fridge!
Olut!
@Historia Don't get me wrong, Karjala on hieno kulttuuri ja kaunis maa (vaikkonkin väärissä käsissä). Karjala tosin ansaitsee enemmän kuin olla mainittunna oluttölökin kylessä.
@@AbsoluuttinenTotuus karjala takas, yksi tölkki kerrallaan.
One thing you didn't mention about the coat of arms changing during Russian rule was that because the sword symbolized the west (Finland and Sweden) and the sabre being trampled on symbolized the east (Russia), it was changed so that the lion held the sabre with one arm to symbolize the change of becoming associated with Russia rather than simply standing over it.
And the lion also faces left, or west on a map.
If i remember correctly, lion facing left is because of the heraldic rules.
@@synkkarepe Could well be, but it's still a nice modern extra interpretation. 😊
Yes, all the Nordic lions face West. Reason for West (actually just left) facing lions is that if the coat of arms is painted on a shield on your left hand, the lion faces the enemy if the shield is held on the side. So it facing "West" means it is actually facing forwards instead of backwards.
I live in Helsinki, and you can still se the old lion, on the house of nobility, and on Helsinkis bank. And both of those old lions are from Russian time.
I always enjoy a lesson in flags, especially this one as it is my father’s heritage. Thanks
Im swedish and think you pronounced Finlands flagga really good
I think that the Finnish flag stands out in simplicity much like Japan's. It's very fitting.
I like blue better than red, though. I tend to associate it with bloodshed.
I agree with you. The Finnish flag is simple and unique. A good combination.
All the Nordic countries have got similar flags. Just the colors are different.
@@cinderellaandstepsisters They have different dimensions, too
As a Finn and someone who knows how hard our language can be, the Finnish pronunciation wasn't bad at all at the intro! Sounded a bit unsure but tbh thats just what it is when pronouncing languages you don't normally speak. The whole video is wonderful and goes over nicely the history of why the flag became what it is. Also managed to explain some of the key history points of Finland.
A correction at 03:36. It is not a lion it is a bear,see the short tail. It is the coat of arms of "northern Finland", the coat of arms with the shield is for that at the time was known as southern Finland. Ann really early version of finlands coat of arms consisted of these two arms quarted with the wasa coat of arms in the middle probaly mirroring how swedens coat of arms was quarted with the three crowns and lion weapon.
One theory of there the lion came from is It that the area was contested by the Russian tsar who in a bit of medival petitessnes, refused to speak with the swedish king who he saw beneath him, insted sending the lord of Novgorod. As sweden did not have vasals it quickly announced the creation of the "storfurstendömet" Finland and gave it a weapon with a lion witch had higer status than a bear. Giving sweden a vasal on the same level as novgorod making the king of sweden technically equal to the tsar.
Another thing is that a colour-shifted version of this same coat of arms is used by the region of Satakunta in Finland today, and the coat of arms immediately to its right is used by Varsinas-Suomi (Finland Proper, AKA Southwest Finland)
A lion. I am half a Finn so I should know it is a Lion!
@@chiasanzes9770 Nah, it's a bear. Source, I'm a full finn. :)
Finland was actually supposed to be a monarchy, and that monarchy would've adopted the red lion flag. But when our monarch-to-be, a german by the name of Frederick Charles, couldn't make it because Germany lost The Great War, Finland chose to be a democracy instead to distance themselves from the Second Reich.
That is what we learned in school, anyway.
You could do an episode about the finnish swastica that also has an interesting history and is currently disapering from state symbols. Also, there is another oficial flag of Finland that is the swedish speaking minority flag which is a yellow cross on a red background and can be seen quite often in swedish speaking regions
Interesting, I didn't know that. Thanks. The Scania/Skåne flag is also a yellow cross on a red background.
@@nian60 Just as a clarification the swastika appears in Finnish Air Force unit flags, it was never a state flag. The FAF swastika is older than the nazi swastika.
The air force swastika was removed from aircraft roundels due to identification issues during WW2 and from badges etc. later but still appears in unit flags in parades etc.
The presidential flag has a cross of liberty in its top left corner that incorporates a swastika
Finland is the country where l was born and raised; l have a serious soft spot in my heart for Finland. lt is always great to see interesting things about Finland, which has never ceased to fascinate me. Even though l haven't lived in Finland for many years, l am still something of a nationalist; l certainly am a big fan of the Finnish Flag, and l certainly don't want to change it!
Can you talk Finnish?
Where do you live now?
Kysyn vain.
@@PizzaWithCocaCola Kylla sina saat kysya! Mina asun Israelissa; ja puhun viela suomea, mutta en usein voi puhua suomea!
@@davestrasburg408 Aika kiva juttu, miksi muutit?
@@PizzaWithCocaCola Muutin monta vuotta sitten. Olen juutalainen; ja isani on amerikkalainen. Mutta olen aina Suomessa syntyinen, ja olen ylpea siita!
@@davestrasburg408 hienoa
Thanks for covering my country :D you didnt do too bad trying Finnis words, it was cute actually :D
Juurikin näin.
@@familiari5533 näköjää en ite osannu ees sanoa omaa kansaa englanniks :D
@@tmdwu5360 luulin että sanoit "finnis" tahallee xD
The yacht club's flag used a navy blue cross with a really thin white cross in the middle. Finnish yacht club flags still follow that design, with the addition of the club's own coat of arms or logo in the upper corner.
The standardized flag's cross is royal blue i.e. medium blue. However, in mass-produced flags, this is often replaced with a darker blue.
Some of the information is "new" to me as well. Visiting the current Nyländska jaktklubben's pavilion on the Southern harbour of Helsinki gives one a good insight on the development of the Finnish yachting flags from the Neva Yacht club's example to the current Finnish flag with the thin white line on the blue cross. The developments stages were (in accordance with the Russian permits) using the Neva yacht club's St. George's cross (centered blue cross) with the provincial emblem for Finnish yachts clubs top left corner, then the one with russian flag on the top left corner and the provincial emblem on the lower left corner (during which most yachts preferred the tennant without the Russian flag), then the off-set blue cross with the provincial emblem on the top left corner. The yacht club flag was the "competition" winner and once it was chosen as the official flag, it was considered appropriate for the yacht clubs to move to the current yacht flag (as earlier but now with yacht clubs' own emblems and thin white stripes on the blue cross) Finland being the only country with club emblems on the national flag (other countries have pennants for clubs). More on fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursilippu
I don't believe the Finnish merchant ships used the Finnish flags. The Russian flag had to be used due to nationality at the time. Once Finland got independent it was quickly changed as the flag determines which country's law is being enforced on the ship. First flag was the red with the golden lion, then moving on to the current Finnish flag after some months.
During that russification period many Finnish boys declined school altogether as they didn't want to learn russian (which was an obligatory subject).
My grandfther has told that at their school the teacher started every year from the Russian alphabet and made sure there was no progress whatsoever. If there was an inspection, the Russian class seemed ok, and the inspector could not understand the boys were at the same point as three years earlier, in the very basics.
@@sampohonkala4195 Gotta love that teacher!
Or they just didn't have shoes to go to school at winter and made up an excuse. My grandfathers family apparently were so poor that his elder half brothers and sisters had about one pair of shoes. Going to school during winter and even in summer was difficult without shoes.
How many schools were there in Finland? Why did Russification begin in 1900, but Finland became part of Russia in 1808?
@@BibEvgen During the 1808-09 war, Alexander I met the estates of Finland in Porvoo and promised to rule the country by Swedish law as before, guaranteering everyone their rights and freedoms. This attitude, considering Finland a separate grand duchy prevailed until the end of the 1800's. Then towards the end of the century Russia started a russification process, which aimed at making Finland just another part of Russia, with Russian army, Russian law, Russian currency, Russian stamps, Russian as the official language. I sort of understand the developement as the nation state was the new ideal - modern countries formed, and they were no longer just random areas ruled by the same king. However, this also ment that the Finns took what belonged to them and declared independent.
Public education started in Finland in the 1860's - before that it was a privilege for the wealthy; however being a Lutheran country everyone had to be able to read and the church had taken care of that. But in the 1860's municipalities started founding schools for all. At the turn of the century there must have been hundreds of schools (roughly 400 municipalities and many had several schools) and in 1921 it became compulsory for everyone to go to school for at least six years.
Expectation: How did the Finnish flag change
Reality: How did the Finnish coat of arms change
Quick note - The first flag of independent Finland was the red lion flag (number 21 seen in 12:49 ). This however stayed only a couple months, until the civil war where the opposing forces were pro-russian, communist red movement, and pro-finnish white movement. This war resulted in the defeat of the reds, and afterwards they decided to go with the current flag ( 13:37 ) because the original red flag was deemed to be in favor of the recently defeated red movement, and they didn't want the new government to feel any relation to the communist reds.
Pro-russian vs pro-finnish is bullshit. Both sides wanted independence, so in that sense they were both pro-finland. Or if you want to mix foreign powers in Finnish civil war then it is Pro-germans vs Pro-red-russians.
@@s.a.3894 Sure, both sides wanted independence, however the red movement was supported by the communists of Russia. Germans only got involved because we already were training jaegers in Germany to help us against the oppressive Russian Empire, and these jaegers then came and joined the white movement's war effort.
But with "pro-russian" I did mean supported by communist Russia, and "pro-finnish" for the more western sided Finns.
Wording doesn't matter, as point remains, the red lion flag wasn't wanted as it felt associated too much with the reds.
Interesting video. Even though I'm Finnish, there was a lot of new information here. Thanks.
P.S. The Finnish flag may be boring, but it is the most beautiful of all flags. 😉
Read the comments, there is even more info there that was missing, witch i didnt know as Fin ether.
That is the tomb of Gustav I Vasa. Finland actually had a different flag right after the independence, the lion flag. It was used for some five months.
14:27 for the snow that covers finland during winter... and also the other seasons XD
somewhere in future: well it used to...
I think Flag number 11, one suggested by someone going by username Maamies would've been nice. Finns are already quite different from other Nordic people so having a flag that's nothing like what they've got would be cool.
I also really like the idea of the flag being just one big Finnish Lion as shown by flag number 21.
My dud Hilbert, 3:32 on Johan coat of arms is a bear not a lion. Do you not see the stubby tail? Its the coat of arms of Satakunta region of Finland. Look at the stone coat of arms you get when you google imege "Arms of Duke John of Sweden"(was second picture for me)
your description is a really bad look for an informative video on finland m8. it is nodic, but not scandinavian. The flags are better called noridc aswell, since it is the nordic cross they are based off of.
eh, arguably we were scandinavian for a large part of our history, so close enough imho. but yes it should be called the nordic cross
@@snowstorm4228 Technically Scandinavia means the countries that are connected to the Scandinavian mountain chain, these being Sweden and Norway and some parts of Finnish Lapland. Usually when talking about Scandinavia, people add Denmark to it (and ignore Finnish Lapland which is a bit weird).
The Nordic countries then include the rest of Finland and also Iceland.
Huge missed opportunity to play Sibelius in the background
didnt even explain why the lion sticks the sword in his own head.
Hey, great video!
One small thing that I want to point out is that while your pronunciation of Swedish is great, that's not how we pronounce it in Finland.
Some of the other designs were interesting but I think the current one is the best because it is simple and striking with the dark blue against the white.
Simple is best. Children and school kids occasionally need to draw a flag, even adults sometimes, so it's nice if it's simple. Simple flags also still look good even just a few pixels wide, like you oft see in the Internet language selections and such. You can basically make the Finnish (or Swedish or Danish) flag 4x3 pixels in size, and it would still look more or less correct and definitely recognizable (if you have got good enough eyes to see tiny things). In that respect it's no different from the more common tricolour (with no extra symbols), even though there's the cross.
Its fun hear you saying finish words because im from finland
Hilbert, the policy of russification was also "highly popular" with native people in other areas in the times of the Soviets.
Both the Karelian coat of arms and the one with the lion portray two swords. The straight sword is western and the curved sword (saber) eastern.
Says it all, really.
Fun fact about Karelia, or Karjala in Finnish, is that there is a beer named Karjala with it's logo as the Karjala coat of arms, one of the most popular mass produced beers in Finland.
I would describe the taste as reflecting of our history and current relationship to Karjala, bitter. "Karjala takasin, tuoppi kerrallaan, perkele." - Said my alcoholic uncle.
kiitos sina niin todella, tama video on mukava
(im learning finnish don't judge XD)
Missing some ä-dots, but otherwise good job! :)
Hyvä!
I am guessing you translated "Thank you so much" directly, but "Kiitos sinä niin todella" doesn't make sense in Finnish. A better translation would be "Kiitos todella paljon". Otherwise a good job.
Cool video
Suomi :)
12:25 top left flag is used by Åland, an autonomous region of Finland
I think if it weren't the current one (and the feelings associated with the blue-white flag), I'd most prefer #37. Would've been awesome. They were also designed by the most prominant painter in Finland at the time, Gallen-Kallela.
There are 2 other notable versions of the Finnish flag.
The Tailed state flag is a tailed version of the state flag, and is the war flag of Finland.
The Presidental flag has the tailed state flag, but with a cross of liberty in the upper left corner. Which bears a strong resemblence with the Swastika. (We had it first)
even though we (finland) was ally of germany in ww2. it has nothing to do with them, as Kai mecklin finnish air museum curator put it:
''if we deny the use of, or stop using the swastika, we could give signal abroad that actually it was a nazi symbol in Finland - which it never was. we are still proud of it and still using it. it's also a symbol of Finnish stubbornness that we don't give up our right or our own history, if there is not any reason to be ashamed of it.'' - Kai Mecklin
@@antcommander1367 This is a good way to think about it. Nazis didn't invent the swastika, they merely adopted a traditional European metaphysical symbol (and by then very common decorative theme) and used it in their state flag.
The symbol became greatly demonized during the second world war in the imagery produced for the sake of war propaganda and after the war it retained its stigma as a symbol of pure evil.
This is rather unfortunate because now an old traditional symbol is forever linked to evil in public imagination.
When it comes to history and adoption of the Finnish Flag, I can't help but always remember a scene from a movie Raja 1918/The Border:
They've just rised the newly chosen Cross Flag at the Border Station. They've have had kinda tense discussions over the Flag Topic in last days. The Bossman comes to work, looks up in disgust and in essence asks/demands: "The hell is that? Get that rag off of the pole!" and someone replies: "No can do. That's the flag they (government) chose." The Actor portrays the disappointment in great way if I remember right.
Always interesting learning about our brothers🇸🇪🇫🇮
12:31 The flag at the top left is actually the modern flag of the autonomous majority Swedish speaking Finnish island of Åland
And the yellow cross on red background is used by the Finland's Swedish as their symbol
Kudos again Gilbert. However you missed a couple of important points. The blue and white combination was originally also a loyalist proclamation towards the emperor or Tsar as red and yellow referred to the swedish coat of arms. The other important fact omitted is the civil war on 1918 on which the losing wore red. So the victorious conservatives and various allies now chose blue and white as the colours of the new republic. So curiously the symbolism changed and the russian origins of the flag seldom mentioned.
big props for actually trying to pronounce the finnish words/names. in most videos they lazily just read the like they were english which hurts my soul
Hello Hilbert. Another great video.
All - More colours, symbols and heraldry. Aren't you flagging by now?
Hilbert - I've started, so I'll Finnish!
I wanted to keep making country puns, but I think it’s about time that I Finnish
I thought there was Nooway to Finnish that habit.
@@sampohonkala4195 it’s a bitterswede habit
0:38 That pronunciation was amazing! Wonderful job!
3:15 - Not a dagger, neither is it in the next part.
You may call it a short sword or a sword. Getting lengthy swords onto emblems and badges can be challenging. The near equal length of the scimitar should tell you everything you need to know.
The top-left flag in 12:51 with number 21 was used in 1918 for a short period of time from January until May. The picture says: "our lion flag from the start of the century, you were symbol of our independent state in the first months"
I love Finland, it's history and it's simularities to Irish history,I love the Finnish flag,and also one of their beautiful women whom is my soul mate and partner....hyvä Suomi.
3:38 is a bear of Satakunta not lion
Kudos for actually trying to do a correct pronounciation at 0:40. Many don't even try. It wasn't that far off either. It sounded a bit as if you were speaking with the Swedish accent.
Very good :). Didn't know a lot of it so thank you for a general summary 👍
That "and also the other seasons" cracked me up.
Excellent pronunciation btw! Thank you!
Flag number 19 (?) at 12:38 in the video is the unofficial flag of the Finland-Swedes (The Swedish speaking minority in Finland)
As far as other countries go, I saw a monument in Sarajevo showing all the historical flags of Bosnia lined up chronologically so perhaps do that? I think the display went Banate, Kingdom, the flag of Ottoman Bosnia, a flag Bosniak landholders used when rebelling against Ottoman government reforms, Austrian Bosnia, socialist Bosnia, the 90s era flag with the arms of the kingdom on a white field, and the modern flag.
Serbia had an interesting situation where post war they held a referendum on the flag, coat of arms, and anthem. The choices of flag were with a red star (as it had been in Yugoslavia) or a blank tricolour, and the red star won but the referendum didn’t have enough turnout so the government just chose a tricolour with the coat of arms (and they chose a modified version of the old coat of arms of the kingdom of Serbia with an eagle and crown despite a simple shield with the tetragramic cross winning that portion of the referendum). At this point a lot of monarchists and conservatives who LARP as monarchists were in the government so restoring more monarchical symbols, though I think putting the COA on the flag was good to distinguish Serbia from Russia (same tricolour just upside down) and Republika Srpska (Serbian tricolour with no emblem). They did similar things for the anthem, going with the monarchical anthem which lost the referendum rather than the winner, Serbia’s national march which commemorates WWI battles against Austria along the river Drina. While the flag changes are boring, the story is interesting. On the other hand if you did Serbia you could consider the many flags of the Serbian revolution and the various medieval flags.
ONe interesting note to add to the matter you mentioned in a passing of a second or two: The crown was removed from the official state flag due to events transpiring at the end of World War I. We were fighting our independence war from Russia with German help and our original intention was to become Kingdom of Finland, with a German prince as our king. However, as things went from observably bad to obviously worse for the Germans, and their royalty, at the twilight of WWI, the idea of having a German prince as our head of state in the post-war world seemed... Less ideal.
The crown used to symbolize that our nation would be a kingdom. Then when that was no longer what we were aiming for, instead we shifted to become a republic like the USA, the crown was removed.
your video is very wellgnouing,expert and professional
Please do the flag of Estonia aswell!! This was a great video, thoroughly enjoyed it!
"You okay, Patrick?"
"Finland!"
The crown was removed in 1920 for a logical reason: the initial decision to introduce a monarchy (even the future German-rooted king had already been selected) was scrapped, and Finland became a republic (with a president as its head of state).
I really like the state flag. It should be the overall flag. The colours work well.
I agree.
The red in the middle gives a nice contrast and overall it looks so much cooler and better.
If I remember correctly, we at a Finnish school were taught that between the Russification and independence, the nationalists started using old Russian flags as their symbol with the red stripe cut off. Then after independence the government decided to choose that color scheme but change the style of the flag to have to the nordic cross design to appear more as belonging to scandinavia rather than Russia.
How about the Croatian flag? Medieval examples, to various 17th century examples in the 30 years war, to the Illyrian provinces and Habsburg Monarchy "landesfarben", the Ban's flags like with Ban Josip Jelačić, the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, the Crownlands of Zvonimir by the very end of the Great War, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs - then the dreaded Yugoslavias, ISC and republic today.
I think it could be quite interesting! A meaty video if done right!
12:17 Some additional info about some of the flags: The first page of suggestions were made around 1863, and still under Russian rule, so that's why some of them incorporated the Russian flag. The bigger description says many of them were reconstructed for this 1972 collection from literary descriptions, not images, and some suggestions were too vague to reconstruct. Doesn't say why they were thinking about these in 1863 though. Maybe a suggestion for Russia to give Finland a separate flag or something, idk. The 2nd page are all suggestions after Finland gained independence. Probaby more accurate representations than the 1st page ones.
2nd page's first flag, no. 21 was used as the official flag of the state at first. Then a civil war broke out under 2 months into our independence in 27th January 1918 between "White Finland" and the Finnish Socialist Worker's Republic aka "Red Finland". The Reds lost 15th May 1918, and the White's leadership / the government figured that their current state flag looked too much like the Red's fully red flag. So on 28th of May 1918, a mere two weeks after their victory, the government chose the blue cross flag.
(Above corrected by edit)
The last one, no. 42 is still an official flag of the Finnish Defence Forces, AKA "a battle flag".
There is also a 4th variant, "Tasavallan presidentin valtiolippu" or "The president's state flag". It looks like the battle flag, but also with a blue-yellow, Finnish freedom cross in the top-left corner.
A personal note, but I'm Finnish so you could say that I'm biased, but anyway:
I think the current flag was a smart choice. The cross connects us with the other Nordic countries, that are culturally similar. The colors represent Finland well, since the nature is very important to us. Also, the blue and white, and a simple design bring a sense of calm and peace, unlike the red and yellow ones. And if Finns are something, they are calm to a fault even.
Suomen lippu technically means the flag of Finland, not the Finnish flag. This is literally semantics, but that's the point here. Suomen is the genetive form of Suomi, so it can be either of the English genetives (Finland's flag or flag of Finland).
In the form "Finnish flag", it would be suomalainen lippu (which wouldn't be used, since that would mean ANY flag or ticket that is Finnish, regardless of how official or unofficial it may be. So rather than "the Finnish flag", it would mean "a Finnish flag", which would cause confusion)
So Suomenlippu (or Suomen lippu depending on how official you want to be) means the same thing as saying Finnish flag in English, but Finnish flag isn't the correct translation for it.
The present flag of Åland would have been the perfect analog of the Norwegian flag, but I think yellow on blue on white is the most aesthetically pleasing one.
The diagonally banded ones are very cool, but I think a more Nordic design fits better.
Just a small correction, "Jaktklubb" would be translated to Hunting Club or something similar, not Yacht club. So I'm not entirely sure that connection is necessarily true. It is however an interesting video. ^^
Based on Wiktionary, "jakt" can mean both "yacht" and "hunting".
"Jakt" can be "yacht" depending on the context. In this case it 100% means "yacht club". Yachts as a type of vessel were popularized by the Dutch and it is named literally after the word for "hunt", because they were fast and easily maneuverable ships.
@@jokemon9547 I stand corrected sir. A day you learn something new isn't wasted. 👌
for continent with very few large cats (Lynxes are biggest i can think of) Europe has remarkable amounts of Lions all over their coats of arms, flags etc.
Could've mentioned the presidential flag at the end which still uses the Coat of Arms in the middle and a swastika on the corner.
Finnish swastika, not connected to the other one.
More specifically Cross of Liberty 3rd class.
Good video, but you missed red color at 14:20. Blue is for lakes and sky, white is for snow and the red is for Finnish small talk.
This is a stupid nitpick but something i cannot avoid as a native Finnish speaker.
Suomen lippu is "The flag of Finland" and not "Finnish flag"
Finnish flag would be "Suomalainen lippu", as this word actually associates the Finns, "Suomalaiset"
As a Finn I've always thaught that the blue cross lion flag should be our official flag, because it looks so much better.
Puhutko suomee
Finnish military flag has that red background coat of arms on it.
greetings from Finland
(Terve)
12:35 "Others actually incorporate that Russian flag in the corner so perhaps some were not anti-Russian as others had."
But the text below the flag you show says (roughly): "This kind flag has been flown e.g. in Olavinlinna [a 15th century castle] in the 1810s." Was this really intended as a suggestion or is it just mentioned as a flag that has been in use in Finland at some point?
Dude. You prounouce stuff in swedish very well. Like for real holy hell. Finnish too, even though im a half finn from the second generation down i still understand somewhat finnish.
I'm glad they went with a "boring" flag. I appreciate a flag that's easily discernable at any size and has no frills. You can make a recognizable Finnish flag with 9 pixels.
Both flags are still in use today
"The white is for the snow that covers Finland in the winter and the other seasons"
Ah yes a classic of the Finnish experience around half the year is just snow
You could do a video explaining the history of Finnish use of the swastika (hakaristi), to clarify to potential viewers the information behind it. It's not at all what many people think so could be interesting.
The designer of the Finnish flag and coat of arms was inspired by the coat of arms of the Swedish king Gustav I Vasa (Johan III's father). The roses depict Finland's historical provinces. There is no coat of arms on the national flag. Instead, the coat of arms can be found on the national flag, the presidential flag, the minister of defense flag and military flags.
I live in Estonia, and back in Dec. 2022 i was in Vana Tallinn. On one of the alleys i saw the old Finnish flag in this video. Just felt like i needed to point that out
Edit: i hate making typos and i hate my keyboard
The flag of Finland should be the black and white chechkered flag
Good video, regards a Finn 🇫🇮😎👍🏻
Was in the navy in 2020 and the flag we flied on the ship had the lion on it
Nice catch that some of us speak Swedish here. Both languages are co-official and of equal status in the constitution.
The original state flag adopted after the indepence had the crown of grand duchy over the coat of arms likely because the original intended form of goverment for finland was to be a constitutional monarchy. Friedrich Karl from germany was selected to become the new king but as germany lost the first world war that plan was buried and parliamentary republic was adopted instead in 1919 and subsequently the crown was removed from the state flag next year as a result.
Of course I'm obviously biased to say this, but I think Finland has one of the nicest flags out there. There are not that many that have only two colors and especially blue and white. It is distinguishable and beautiful in its simplicity.
I've used that red lion flag here and there, it's one of my favourites.
3:30 That's actually supposed to be a bear, not a lion, since it's an early version of the coat of arms of Satakunda, with the only difference being the colours. I don't know if that's also the precursor to the coat of arms of Finland, but it most certainly isn't representing Finland as a whole. The bottom two coats of arms are that of Satakunda and Finland Proper representing Western Finland.
Satakunta. Satakunda is its Swedish name which means nothing. It really should be hundare in Swedish.
Your Finnish is actually respectable. Ah, my home nation's flag. I like it, I do admit that the government flag has far more character but, to be thematic with other other Nordic nations. The national flag is the better one to go with in days of diplomacy, peace, travel between the nations, commerce and exchange of culture and ideas.