The Bulgarian Flag - The History

Bulgarians are very proud of the heritage and displaying their National flag is a popular part of Bulgarian culture. You will often see the National flag flying in a mast in gardens or hanging out of a town apartment. The flag as a sticker in cars and on bicycles is another common sight. The flag always reminds me of the colours of the Shopska salad also so much part of the Bulgaria's heritage.

The flag of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: знаме на България, zname na Balgariya) is a horizontal tricolour of three equal bands of colour, from the top white, green and red. The bands will be of a ratio of 3:5, width to height.[1] The colours of the flag are specified as, white, whiteness no less than 80%, green, 17-5936 on the Pantone textile scale and red 18-1664.[2]

The flag was originally adopted following the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). Flags of green, white and red were used by Bulgarian Legia (a revolutionary organisation founded in Serbia by Bulgarian emigrants) in 1861-1862. The first white-green-red striped flag was made by S. Paraskevov and presented to Russian-Bulgarian troops (during the war against Turkey) in the Romanian town of Braila in 1877. It was a swallow-tailed banner. There was a lion and inscription "BULGARIA" in the centre (in Cyrillic characters). Therefore the origins of the Bulgarian flag come from that of Russia, being the only independent Slavic state, with the green replacing the blue stripe in the tricolour. Other sources give the flag of Fillip Totyu’s detachment, dating prior to the Liberation (1867) and the flag flown by Rakovski (red-white-green) in Andrea Saco’s famous painting as the fist use of these colours. The symbolism of the colours is vague however the red and white could come from the traditional colours of the Martenitsi and the legend behind it, with the green symbolising freedom.

Source: flagoftheday.blogspot.com