Flag of Georgia

What the flag of Georgia looks like

The flag of Georgia (the country) has a white field and five red crosses. A large St George's cross, with arms of equal length, runs to the edges of the flag and divides it into four rectangles. In each rectangle sits a smaller cross, known as a Bolnisi cross. This type of cross has arms that widen toward the ends, and it is named after the Bolnisi Sioni Church of the 5th century, where it appears in the carving.

The flag is proportioned 2:3 and has only two colors, red and white. It is usually called the five-cross flag. The design is easy to recognize because few flags in the world have this arrangement of crosses, and it is sometimes confused with the flag of England, which has a single red cross. A small version is shown on the Georgia flag emoji page, and image files are on the download page.

Georgia flag meaning and symbolism

The large red cross is the cross of Saint George, the patron saint of Georgia. Georgians have a strong tie to the saint: churches named for him are found across the country and he appears on the coat of arms, slaying a dragon. The same cross is also the flag of England, which also has Saint George as its patron.

The four smaller crosses are often explained as representing the four corners of the world, or the four Gospels, with the large cross at the center. Another reading links them to the unity of the Georgian lands. White is usually taken to mean purity and peace and red to stand for faith, courage or the blood shed for the homeland, but these are common interpretations and not an official statement. The layout resembles the Jerusalem Cross, and some writers link it to the Georgian Church's historic presence in the Holy Land.

History of the Georgian flag

The five-cross design is very old. Variants of a white banner with a red cross are linked to the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, and the pattern with five crosses appears on medieval maps and portolan charts from the 14th century. It is believed to have been used as the banner of the Georgian kings, and it also appears on later regional flags.

In the 20th century the country went through a series of flags. The short-lived Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-21) used a dark cherry flag with a black and white stripe in the canton. After the Soviet takeover, Georgia had Soviet flags: first red with Georgian letters and later red with a hammer and sickle and a blue stripe. The cherry flag was brought back when the country moved toward independence in 1990 and stayed until 2004.

The five-cross flag was revived by the opposition National Movement, led by Mikheil Saakashvili, which used it as a party flag. After the Rose Revolution of November 2003, the new government adopted it as the national flag in January 2004. The change was opposed by some, who disliked the religious symbolism or preferred the cherry flag, but it has remained in use. Since 2004 it flies alongside the flag of the European Union at many government buildings.

Georgia the country vs. Georgia the U.S. state

Many searches for the "Georgia flag" are about the U.S. state, whose flag has nothing to do with the country's five-cross flag. The state flag has red-white-red stripes and a blue canton with the state coat of arms inside a ring of 13 stars, for the original thirteen colonies. See the Georgia state flag for its meaning and history.