| Use | Civil and state flag and ensign |
|---|---|
| Adopted | January 25, 2004 |
| Design | White rectangle, with in its central portion a large red cross that extends to the edge of the flag. In the four corners there are four Bolnur-Katskhuri crosses of the same color.[1] |
| Variant flag of Georgia | |
| Design | Flag of the President of Georgia |
| Variant flag of Georgia | |
| Design | Flag of the Minister of Defence |
| Variant flag of Georgia | |
| Design | Flag of the Chief of the General Staff |
| Variant flag of Georgia | |
| Design | War Flag of Georgia |
The official flag of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს სახელმწიფო დროშა, saqartvelos sakhelmtsipo drosha) is the "five-cross flag", restored to official use on January 14, 2004, after a break of some 500 years. It was previously the flag of the medieval Georgian kingdom and had been used as the official symbol of the United National Movement political party.
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The national flag of Georgia, as described in the Presidential decree No. 31 of January 25, 2004:
| “ | The Georgian national flag is a white rectangle, with in its central portion a large red cross touching all four sides of the flag. In the four corners there are four bolnur-katskhuri crosses of the same color (as the large cross). | ” |
| Scheme | Red | White |
|---|---|---|
| RGB | 255-0-0 | 255-255-255 |
| CMYK | 0-100-100-0 | 0-0-0-0 |
| Web | #FF0000 | #FFFFFF |
Originally, the white flag with the single red St. George's cross was used by the Georgian King Vakhtang Gorgasali in the 5th century as the national symbol of the Georgian state and nation. During the golden age of the Georgian kingdom the "five-cross flag" was used since 13th century by Queen Tamar of Georgia. The central element of the flag is the cross of St. George, the patron saint of Georgia. This cross is also the national flag of England (whose patron saint is also Saint George) and a component of the Union Flag. According to the Georgian scholar Giorgi Gabeskiria, the four extra crosses were probably added during the reign of George V of Georgia (also known as "the Brilliant" or "the Splendid"), who drove out the Mongols. Around that time, the new design was adopted as a variant of the Jerusalem cross, a symbol used by crusaders in the Holy Land, which likewise used a large central cross with four smaller "crosslets" in the four quadrants. The crosses are said to have represented the five Holy Wounds of Christ.
The flag fell out of use later in the medieval period, but was revived by Georgian patriotic movement following the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. A majority of Georgians, including the influential Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church, supported the restoration of the flag and in 1999 the Georgian parliament passed a bill to change the flag. However, it was not endorsed by the President, Eduard Shevardnadze. It was adopted in the early 2000s by the main opposition party, the United National Movement led by Mikhail Saakashvili, as a symbol of popular resistance to Shevardnadze's rule.
The flag was adopted by the Georgian parliament on January 14, 2004. It was formally endorsed by a presidential decree signed by Saakashvili on January 25, following his election as President of Georgia. Its adoption was not without controversy, as some religious groups thought it inappropriate to include crosses on the national flag.
During Georgia's brief existence as an independent state (the Democratic Republic of Georgia) from 1918 to 1921, a tricolor flag was adopted (below left). The design resulted from a national flag-designing contest won by Jakob Nikoladze, a painter. It was abolished by the Soviet Union following the 1921 takeover of Georgia but was revived on 14 November 1990, by the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia. It lost popularity thereafter as it became associated with the chaotic and violent period around Georgia's independence from the Soviet Union.
The flag's symbolism, according to the Oxford Family Encyclopedia, is as follows:
The wine-red color represents the good times of the past and the future. The black symbolizes Russian rule and the white represents hope for peace.—Steve Luck, ed (1997). Oxford Family Encyclopedia (first ed.). London: George Philip. p. 281. ISBN 0-19-521367-X.
During the Soviet period, Georgia adopted a number of versions of the red Soviet flag incorporating either the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic's name, or a red hammer and sickle with a star in a blue sun in the canton and blue bar in the upper part of flag (below right). The flag of Georgian SSR was abolished by the Georgian government in November 1990 shortly before it declared independence from the Soviet Union.
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