NATIONAL FLAG DAY OF UKRAINE

Ukrainians annually celebrate National Flag of Ukraine on August 23rd. The blue and yellow flag is one of three state symbols of Ukraine established by the Constitution.

It was August 23, 2004, when President Leonid Kuchma signed a decree under the number 987/2004 on the establishment of National Flag Day of Ukraine ‘in honor of the long history of the Ukrainian state, independent state symbols of Ukraine and to educate citizens to respect state symbols of Ukraine’.

Earlier, the National Flag Day was celebrated only in Kyiv at the municipal level. The capital celebrated this holiday on July 24th, the day after 1990 blue and yellow flag was raised over the Kyiv Mayor’s office to symbolize the beginning of a new page in our history – the establishment of the modern Ukrainian state. In 2009, President Viktor Yushchenko has amended the Dream establishing an annual official flag raising ceremony in Ukraine on August 23rd.

Ukrainian national tradition symbolic reflection of the world has been formed over several millennia. Use the yellow and blue colors (with different shades) on the flags of Ukraine-Rus traces from of old. Subsequently, these two colors have become public importance.

Incidentally, the first attempt to create a yellow-blue flag with two horizontal stripes around such form, as now, was made by the Chief Rus Council, which began the struggle for the revival of the Ukrainian nation. The first yellow-blue flag was raised in June 1848 at the Lviv City Hall.

Our flag is not just a symbol of sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, and especially the personification of our national unity, honor and dignity. Ukrainian people affirmed its century’s everlasting dream of freedom, statehood and unity under the banner of blue and yellow. The constitutional and civic duty of every Ukrainian is to protect and respect the National Flag of Ukraine as a national sanctuary.