Flag of Bulgaria

The flag of Bulgaria consists of three vertical stripes of equal size: white, green and red in the appropriate sequence. The current design was approved on November 22, 1990.

What is the meaning of the Bulgarian flag?

There is no definitive interpretation of the flag's symbolism, but there are a number of possible variations. The most common idea is that the three colors represent the people's way of life and national history:

• White reminds of a pure spirit, a thirst for freedom;
• green - about forests, mountains, and the native land on which it all grows;
• red reminds of the terrible price of freedom - the sacrifices of ancestors.

Some researchers argue that the colors were not chosen by chance. It is believed that Heorhiy Rakovsky made an invaluable contribution. Namely, he deliberately singled out these three colors because they were the basis of the flags of the Assyrian peoples, and Bulgarians should be attributed to them. Another interpretation lies in the arrangement of the colors - horizontally with the same width, which symbolizes the equal importance of three groups of people in society: 

• White - clergy 
• green - workers;
• red - warriors.

There are also dozens of other assumptions as to why these colors are present on the tricolor and what they mean.

History of the Bulgarian flag

Before the adoption of Christianity, Bulgarians used the "horse's tail" as a military flag. Then they started using flags similar to the Byzantine flags. But there is very little information about flags during the First and Second Bulgarian Kingdoms. Historically, the first appearance of the flag in the colors and sequence of today was in 1861 - 1862 by two Bulgarian legions of Georgi Rakovski. Later, Philip Totu's army flew a flag in which the tricolor was in a different sequence - red, white, green. The same flag was used by the Russian-Bulgarian volunteer battalion during the Serbian-Turkish war in 1876. And the flag of the Trojan Committee of the Great Patriotic War of 1875 had a similar flag (red, green, and white).

The choice of the national flag was most influenced by a flag sewn by Ivan Paraskevov's daughter, namely Stiliana, in the Romanian city of Braila and given to volunteers who participated in the Russo-Turkish War. It was square in shape, with the image of a lion and the inscription "БЪЛГАРИЯ" in the middle. Today, this flag is part of the collection of the People's Army.

The first Bulgarian constitution, adopted on April 16, 1879, stated that "the Bulgarian national flag is tricolor and is horizontally arranged in white, green and red".

The coat of arms in the upper left corner of the white field of the flag was added in 1947 and remained there until November 27, 1990. This was the last change made before the adoption of the Fourth Constitution of Bulgaria, which gave the flag its current appearance.