Colors of freedom: Ukraine celebrates National Flag Day

Since 2009, an official flag-raising ceremony has been introduced on August 23 throughout Ukraine, informs Espreso.Zahid.

The first official recognition of the blue-yellow flag took place in Ukraine on March 22, 1918. On this day, the Central Rada adopted a law that approved the combination of colors as the flag of the Ukrainian People's Republic, as Ukraine was then called.

The correct name of the Ukrainian flag is blue-yellow, not lightblue-yellow or yellow-blue. Its colors are arranged in the following order: blue at the top, yellow at the bottom.

For the first time, we find a mention of the combination of blue and yellow elements in the flag in historical references as far back as 1256, when the city of Lviv was founded. His coat of arms was decorated with a golden lion on a bright blue background. The very colors of the flag have existed for thousands of years. The appearance of yellow-blue colors is associated with the Great Migration of Peoples, which took place 3000 years BC. The Kozaks also had blue flags with gold ornaments.

In 1938−1939, the blue-yellow flag was the flag of Carpathian Ukraine, in 1941 – of the Ukrainian State.

In Soviet times, keeping a blue-yellow cloth was considered a crime, and its appearance in public places was considered an extraordinary event. For this, they could be imprisoned for two years, or sent to a "psychological institution".

The establishment of Independence began with the raising of the flag in different parts of Ukraine. On April 26, 1989, a rally in memory of the victims of the Chernobyl tragedy took place in Lviv under the Ukrainian flag. On May 22, 1989, the national flag was raised in Kyiv at the closing of the Shevchenko holiday. On March 23, 1990, he appeared near the Ternopil City Council. April 3, 1990 - over the Lviv City Council.

On July 24, 1990, the blue-yellow flag was ceremoniously raised over the city council building in Kyiv. The cloth was previously consecrated in St. Sophia Cathedral by the bishops of the UOC and the UGCC.

On September 18, 1991, the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine granted the status of the official symbol of the country to the blue-yellow flag by the resolution "On the Flag of Ukraine". On January 28, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a resolution "On approval of the National Flag as the State Flag of Ukraine."

The amendment on the flag was included in the Constitution of Ukraine, approved in 1996. Article 20 states that the state symbols of Ukraine are the State Flag of Ukraine, the State Coat of Arms of Ukraine and the State Anthem of Ukraine. The State Flag of Ukraine is a flag made of two equally sized horizontal stripes of blue and yellow colors.

This year, these two colors have become a symbol of the fight for freedom around the world. They filled cities and villages in Ukraine and civilized countries, the Internet, entered politics, culture and all other spheres of life. Due to the full-scale attack of Russia, the meaning and symbolism of the Ukrainian flag increased thousands of times.