Flag of Estonia

What the flag of Estonia looks like

The Estonian flag has three horizontal stripes of equal height: blue on top, black in the middle and white at the bottom. There is no emblem, coat of arms or other detail. The proportions are 7:11, so the flag is slightly narrower than the common 2:3 ratio.

Searches for a "square" Estonia flag usually come from icons and avatars. The real flag is rectangular. Only Switzerland and the Vatican City have square national flags. The Estonia flag emoji shows the same three stripes in a small size.

Estonian flag meaning and symbolism

The Estonian tricolor is often said to represent three parts of the country. Blue stands for the sky, the sea and the lakes, black for the soil of the homeland and the dark past of the people, and white for the snow and the hope of a bright future. Other explanations give blue as a sign of faith and loyalty, black as the soil and the hardship of history, and white as the striving for purity and enlightenment.

The colors were chosen by students in the 1880s and had a symbolic reading in the poem and song tradition of the time. None of the meanings is set down in law, so they are traditional.

History of the Estonian flag

Estonia was part of the Russian Empire when the flag was first used. The blue, black and white banner was adopted by the Estonian Students' Society in Tartu, and it was consecrated in 1884 in Otepää, which is why the town is called the cradle of the flag. It was at first a society flag, but it quickly grew into a symbol of the national awakening.

During the independence period the tricolor was officially approved. Estonia declared independence on 24 February 1918, and the flag was confirmed as the national flag on 21 November 1918. It was the flag of the first republic until the Soviet occupation in 1940.

The Soviet authorities banned the tricolor and replaced it with the flag of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. Estonians abroad kept using the flag, including the government-in-exile. In 1988, as the Singing Revolution gathered pace, the use of the old flag was allowed again. The tricolor was raised on Pikk Hermann tower in Tallinn on 24 February 1989, and it was restored as the state flag in 1990, shortly before independence was fully re-established in 1991.

Estonia celebrates Flag Day on 4 June, the date of the 1884 consecration. The flag is raised each morning on Pikk Hermann in Tallinn, and the Flag Act governs its use.

Estonian flag compared with its neighbors

Estonia has close cultural ties with Finland and the Nordic countries, but its flag does not use a Nordic cross. Its southern neighbor Latvia flies a dark red flag with a narrow white stripe, and Finland uses a blue cross on white. See more designs on the European flags page.