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Republica de Panama, Republic of Panama
Flag adopted: 28 March 1941 (First hoisted 20 December 1903)
Coat of Arms adopted: 4 June 1904
The Flag
The current national flag was confirmed by Law 48 of 1925, and ratified by law 28 of 28 March 1941. The blue and red is for the Conservative Party and Liberal Party; the white is for peace; the blue star is the purity and honesty of the life of the country; the red star is for authority and law in the country.
Jaume Ollé, 4 September 1996
From , located by Jarig Bakker:
Flag of Panama
The Panamanian flag was design by Mr. Amador Guerrero and made by [his wife] Ms. Maria Ossa de Amador.
The Panamanian flag is a rectangle divided into four quarters: the top hoist one, white with a five-pointed blue star; the top fly one, red; the bottom hoist one, blue; and the bottom fly one, white with a five-pointed red star
The combination of its three colours has this meaning: white stands for the long-expected peace through the pacifical union of the historical parties, the Liberal one represented by red and the Conservative one by blue.
Baptism of the Flag
On December 20th 1903 the emblem was baptised, acting as Godparents [sic] Dr. Gerardo Ortega with Ms. Lastenia de Lewis and Mr. José Agustín Arango with Ms. Manuela M. de Arosemena. Rev. Fray Bernardino de la Concepción García gave his blessing.
Legal adoption of the Flag
The Constituent Assembly provisionally approved the flag by Law 64 of 1904. It was definitively approved through Law 4 of 1925 written by the National Assembly and ratified by Law of March 28th 1941.
Translated by Santiago Dotor , 13 December 1999
From Smith [smi75]:
"The orderly division of the field suggested alternation of the parties at the helm of the government. blue and red were also associated with the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which flank Panama."
From DK Pocket Book [udk97]: "Red was the colour of the Conservatives and blue that of the Liberals." Error?
Ivan Sache , 26 December 1999
Crampton - The World of Flags (1990: '...it is said that its colors stand for the Colorados (the "Reds", or radical party) and for the Conservatives, the traditional parties of the time, with white for peace. It was designbed by the first President, Manuel Amador Guerrero, and first hoisted on 20 December 1903...'
The Encyclopedia (1999): 'The blue and red are the colors of the main political parties (Conservatives and Liberals respectively) and the white denotes peace between them. The blue also symbolizes the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean, and the red stands for the blood of those who lost their lives for their country. The blue star represents the civic virtues of purity and honesty, and the red star is a symbol of authority and law.'
Jarig Bakker , 26 December 1999
A friend of mine told me that in the recent events of retrocession of the Canal, Panama National Flags sere usually seen in ration 1 : 2 can anyone confirm ?
Armand du Payrat, 28 December 1999
Smith is totally incorrect, DK Pocket Book is incomplete. Crampton - The World of Flags (1990) got the red Liberal party wrong and the designer was Manuel Amador Jr., not the President Manuel Amador Guerrero. The Encyclopedia (1999) is accurate and complete.
Alvaro Aguilar, 31 August 2001
According to [pay00] - National flag (2:3) and (1:2). Measurement of stars from both Album and Flaggenbuch gives for diameter of the stars 30% of the flag hoist. Album, as well as Smith, has the FIAV grid totally filled for this flag, thus meaning it is used on land as civil, state and war flag and at sea as civil, state and naval ensign. Smith gives the flag proportion as approximate 2:3. Album shows the flag in proportion 2:3, but caption says 2:3 and 1:2.
Approximate colour specifications in Album are:
Red: Pantone 186c - C0:M90:Y8:K5
Blue: Pantone 300c - C100:M45:Y0:K0
Anything on other flags such as a Prsidential flag, for instance?
Ivan Sache, 23 june 2002
I would pssibly have chosen some darker shade of blue to draw this. In any case, [smi82] show the blue rather dark, and some other sources also choose darker (if maybe not so dark one). Possibly there is a realtion with US shades? Then maybe not.
Not that I am aware of any other flags. Nither Flaggenbcuh, not Smith nor National Geographics mention any other flags. n fact Crampton in [cra90f] clearly says in the "Other flags" field "None."
Zeljko Heimer, 23 june 2002
Does this mean that Album gives construction details? As far as I can see no two flag books picture this flag with the same ratio for the stars. Most sources appear to agree that the shade of blue should be the same as that used in the flag of Costa Rica.
There also appears to be some variety on the history of this flag and the proposal before that, but do we know what the first version of this flag looked like?
Siegel [sig12] describes both stars as red, but the images does show the current flag.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 7 July 2002
The website (located by Jarig Bakker) has the text of the 1949 decree on use of the flag. Article 2 has the following to say about proportions: "Article 2: The Flag of the Republic has the following dimensions: three meters in length by two in width for those flown on public buildings, warships and merchant ships; one meter 80 centimeters in length by one meter 44 centimeters in width for the colors [pabellones] of units of infantry and artillery; of one meter square [for t]he standards of cavalry[.] [F]lags for official automobiles will measure 47 centimeters in length by 32 centimeteres in width."
My brackets are my emendation of a text that, on the website, actually says "...infantería y artillería; de un metro cuadrado. Los estandartes de caballería y las Banderas de los automóviles de uso oficial medirán ...." This makes sense to me only if the period after "quadrado" is changed to a comma and a new sentence is begun after "caballería." Otherwise the phrase "de un metro quadrado" doesn't apply to any flag, and the poor cavalrymen are left carrying an absurdly small standard.
The same site also has rules for vertical hoisting/rotate and reverse so the blue star is in the flag's upper right and the red one in the flag's lower left.
Joe McMillan, 20 September 2002
This gives ratios 2:3, 4:5, 1:1 and 32:47. The Album mentions possibility 1:2. Is there any legal background for that?
Sadly enough, the regulations says nothing on the size of the stars. Ivan estimates them to 30% of hoist, based on Flaggenbuch and Album.
Zeljko Heimer, 23 September 2002
The Mariner's Handbook, edit 0999, British HO Taunton, presents it as 1:2
Armand du Payrat, 23 September 2002
Note that the 4:5, 1:1, and 32:47 ratios are for very specialized uses.
Joe McMillan, 23 September 2002
One may then say that the Panamian flag is simply 2:3, as we do for the others too. However, the main point I wanted to ask was regarding the 1:2 ratio, which seems is not legally sanctioned, but apparently used. I wander if the use of that long flag might be happening only as an ensign - Panamian ensign is among the most popular flags of conviniance, and therefore there certainly are many ships carrying ensigns that not only are produced abroad Panama, but probably haven't seen Panamian coasts ever. If 1:2 version is not frequent unofficial variant - we might want to drop it alltogether.
Zeljko Heimer, 24 September 2002
According to [pay00] - National Flag (CSW/CSW 2:3 and 1:2) - Size of stars is estimated on FOTW to 3/10 of hoist.
Zeljko Heimer, 7 October 2002
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