A full mailbox is a happy mailbox! World through postcards, postcrossing and covers

Sunday 11 March 2018

0134 Greece Flag of country FOTW79

Sent: 20.07.2017
Received: 03.08.2017
Travel time: 14 days

Sender myself from Hersonissos, Crete - from my holiday :)




Wiki: The national flag of Greece, popularly referred to as the "sky-blue-white" or the "blue-white" (Greek: Γαλανόλευκη or Κυανόλευκη), officially recognized by Greece as one of its national symbols, is based on nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white. There is a blue canton in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white cross; the cross symbolizes Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the established religion of the Greek people of Greece and Cyprus. The blazon of the flag is Azure, four bars Argent; on a canton of the field a Greek cross throughout of the second. The official flag ratio is 2:3. The shade of blue used in the flag has varied throughout its history, from light blue to dark blue, the latter being increasingly used since the late 1960s. It was officially adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus on 13 January 1822.
According to popular tradition, the nine stripes represent the nine syllables of the phrase "Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος" ("Freedom or Death"), the five blue stripes for the syllables "Ελευθερία" and the four white stripes "ή Θάνατος".  The nine stripes are also said to represent the letters of the word "freedom" (Greek: ελευθερία). There is also a different theory, that the nine stripes symbolize the nine Muses, the goddesses of art and civilization (nine has traditionally been one of the numbers of reference for the Greeks).
Blue and white have been interpreted as symbolizing the colors of the famed Greek sky and sea.

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