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The Curaçao Flag is Explained

Category: | Published on: June 27, 2019 | By Omaily Lucas

Every nation has its flag that represents the history, culture, and heritage of the country. Curaçao is a young country compared to other nations, but it still has a strong history and patriarchy that is reflected in its flag. Each year we celebrate the Curaçao flag on July 2nd, but before we begin the festivities it’s good to first learn about the Curaçao flag and what it represents so we can truly honor it.

Curaçao used to be a Dutch colony as was Aruba, Bonaire, Saba, Sint Maarten, and Sint Eustatius. In 1954 they formed the Netherlands Antilles/Dutch Antilles and were a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands Antilles had its own flag that was used on all formal occasions. While being part of the Dutch Kingdom the country felt that it would be more patriotic if it could use its own flag. Now, even after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on 10-10-2010 and becoming an independent constituent country of the Dutch Kingdom, the flag of Curaçao is still a valuable part of the identity of the island.

 

How the Curaçao Flag Came to Be

Adopting a new flag was an idea that the community could surely stand behind, including the international public. After all, the competition for a new design drew almost 2,000 submissions. A special ‘Flag Committee’ was created to choose what would be the new flag.

In the end, the winning designer was the young, 18 years old, Martin den Dulk. His design, that became the new Curaçao flag, was unveiled for the first time on July 2nd, 1984. This day became the first ever Flag Day to be organized on Curaçao.

 

The Design

The Curaçao flag’s design is simple, timeless, but represents the most important elements of the island. It consists of three unequal horizontal stripes at a ratio of 5:1:2. The upper left corner contains two stars diagonally set below each other; the upper one smaller than the one below it.

The upper, thicker, stripe has an ultramarine color and represents the blue sky, while the thinner bottom stripe of the same color represents the blue sea. Of course, the piercing bright sun can’t be left out and is well represented in the flag by the middle yellow stripe. The big white star is Curaçao, while the small star is Klein Curaçao.

Even the points of the stars in the Curaçao flag has a special meaning. It represents the 5 continents from which a large part of the community comprises of.

Every little detail of the flag has a meaning behind it and is a copy paste of how Curaçao is.

The Importance of the Flag

Our nation might be young, our island might be small, however, our pride and love for Curaçao are big and present. As a country that was once a colony and blended under a collective name, having our own flag always had extra meaning to it. An extra value!

You’ll notice that during every formal ceremony when the national anthem is sung, everyone will stand up and face the flag with the respect it deserves. It’s something they grew up with. They sang at school during the start of the month, at official events, and you’ll even hear it on the radio at noon. The voices of everyone singing the anthem will give you chills because most ‘Yu di Kòrsou’ will know the song by heart.

As a nation, we know the importance of our flag and the meaning it has in our everyday life. That’s why every year on the 2nd of July we celebrate our flag with pride and joy.

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