Flag of Honduras

What the flag of Honduras looks like

The flag of Honduras has three horizontal bands of equal height: blue at the top, white in the center and blue at the bottom. On the white band are five blue five-pointed stars. Four of them sit at the corners of an imaginary square and the fifth sits in the middle, forming an X or a quincunx. The flag is twice as wide as it is tall, a proportion of 1:2.

The shade of blue is a point of discussion. It is often called turquoise, and a deeper cobalt or royal blue is common on printed and digital flags. The color is the subject of legislation, and different decrees have specified different shades over time.

The design is very close to the flag of El Salvador, which also has a blue-white-blue arrangement but with a coat of arms in the middle instead of stars. A look at the Honduras flag emoji shows the five stars clearly, even at small size.

Honduras flag meaning and symbolism

The two blue bands are said to represent the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which lie on either side of Central America. White between them stands for peace, purity and the land of Honduras. Another common reading takes the colors as the sky and the sea, and the spirit of the people as pure and prosperous.

The five stars stand for the five states of the former Federal Republic of Central America: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The star in the center represents Honduras itself, as the heart of the union. The stars also express the hope that the five countries will unite again, a goal known as Central American unity. Most of these readings are traditional and are not written into law, so you will see slightly different versions in Honduran schools and books.

History of the Honduras flag

Honduras was part of the Spanish Empire until 1821, when Central America declared independence. It briefly belonged to the Mexican Empire, then in 1823 joined the Federal Republic of Central America, also called the United Provinces of Central America. That federation flew a flag of blue, white and blue bands with a coat of arms in the center showing a triangle, five volcanoes and a rising sun.

When the federation fell apart in the late 1830s, its members kept the blue and white colors in their own ways. Honduras later adopted its own flag with the blue-white-blue bands and five stars to keep the memory of the federation. It was set by decree in early 1866, and that version is the basis of the current flag. Other earlier versions had used the coat of arms in the center.

Since then the layout has stayed the same, and later laws have mainly fixed the exact shade of blue and the position of the stars. People often ask whether Honduras has a new flag. It does not: the blue-white-blue design with five stars has been used since the 19th century.