Talk:Flag of Finland

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Should I keeop this information in? It measn nothing to me. I'm nto shore if any full time vexiologist woudl find it intresting. But Genrally I dont think many people would find it useful. - fonzy

Someone who knows both English (unlike many of the authors of this article) and Finnish (unlike everyone else) and isn't damn lazy (unlike yours truly) needs to completely rewrite this article. - Cymydog Naakka 5 July 2005 09:01 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Danish or Swedish origin?

This article claims Danish origin of the flag. I've the hungarian publishing of the World Encyclopedia of Flags by Alfred Znamierowski (ISBN 9639261874; original might be ISBN 1840384158, but with the same author the more recent ISBN 0754814432), which claims the origins of Finnish flag as being Swedish. Could someone check which source stating the Danish story, please? Thanks! Cheers, CsTom - 18:19, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Sorry for the late reply ;). But the Swedish flag origin is the Danish flag. In 15th Century Swedish made their flag, and Finnish is from the Swedish. So basicly it's from the Danish flag. But I don't see the "origin" very important because they're just crosses on a background.. --Pudeo 18:44, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

At Akseli Gallen-Kallela, it says: In 1917, Gallen-Kallela and his son Jorma took part in the fighting at the front of the Finnish Civil War. When the regent, General Mannerheim, heard about this in 1918, he invited Gallen-Kallela to design the flags, official decorations and uniforms for the newly independent Finland. This information needs to be clarified or corroborated, and inserted into the flag article if correct. JackofOz 02:37, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Portuguese Flag

The Finnish flag is very similar with the first Portuguese flag [1] should that be mentioned?

[edit] New Flag

Did they really have a design competition? If so, the resulting design seems spectacularly unoriginal. It's just the Swedish flag in different colours. I always assumed a Scandinavian cross was chosen as both, a display of historic links with Sweden (the country officially being bilingual Finnish/Swedish, and secondly because it wanted to be associated with or be seen as a part of Scandinavia, in the light of the Iron Curtain and the rather scary super power of the USSR, immediately to it's right. Funny that these days, Finns seem to hate being referred to as Scandinavian.

About Swedish flag: Did they really have a designer imagination? If so, the resulting design seems spectacularly unoriginal. It's just the Danish flag in different colours. I always assumed a Scandinavian cross was chosen as both, a display of historic links with Denmark (the country unofficially being occupied by them for some time), and secondly because it wanted to be associated with or be seen as a part of the Kalmar union...
I don't know why you have a problem with the Finnish flag. In the Nordic countries, a cross-flag was a tradition, what they should have chosen, another ugly tricolour flag out of nowhere? "in the light of the Iron Curtain and the rather scary super power of the USSR" Hah, by the time it was chosen, military leaders planned to crush Petersburg and the ultimately weak Soviet Russia. Besides, a blue-cross flag was used in Finnish boats in the 1800s. Anyway, the main issue seems to be that you classify Finland into a different category than rest of the Nordic countries, thus denying a right to use the nordic cross. Finland however shares the very same culture with the other Nordic countries, so I see no problem with a cross-flag.
And by the way, shouldn't you be wondering about spectacular unoriginality of the St George's Cross? It's like Danish flag in reverse colours. Somehow I find you thinking Britain is more closely related to the Scandinavian kingdoms than Finland, which is an interesting idea.
And with being scandinavians, in English language, Finland should be included to Scandinavia since "Nordic countries" is not so well-known term. I think in the Nordic countries Finlandless Scandinavia should be reserved to matters where Finland actually differs from the kingdoms, such as the linguistics. The only reason why the Swedes etc. didn't want to include Finland to Scandinavia when the term was created was that the Finns were told to be racially Mongolians, thus inferior, so the Swedes didn't want to share a group with them. Nowadays it's just a mess to have those different terms. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.115.27.208 (talk) 20:58, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Question

Why do the finish use there civil ensign for there country and not the state flag like everyw where else? thanks --SelfQ (talk) 02:24, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

The state flag is reserved only for government organizations (other than the military). Do other countries have a separate state flag, that's a better question. --Vuo (talk) 19:15, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
Yes, the use of the state flag is extremely tightly sanctioned. For example, even the municipal governments use the usual national flag, as they are not state organs. This means that even seeing the state flag is an uncommon occasion. There are not so many buildings flying it. The nationalist feelings we have are focused on the national flag. It is just the way our culture works. In other countries, there are other traditions. --MPorciusCato (talk) 10:24, 26 March 2008 (UTC)