Costa Rica Flag


Costa Rica Flag

The Costa Rica flag was formally adopted on November 27, 1906, nonetheless the blue, white, and red horizontal design of the Costa Rica flag was made and used since 1848 when the country of Costa Rica left the Central America Federation and proclaimed itself a Sovereign Republic. Pacifica Fernández, first lady and wife of President Jose Mariá Castro Madriz, designed the Costa Rica flag in 1848 inspired by the colors of the French Flag and French Revolution’s ideals of freedom, equality, and brotherhood.

The Costa Rica flag consists of five horizontal stripes with the colors, blue, white, and red. The red stripe is in the center between two white stripes, which are between two blue stripes. The stripes width is 1/6 of the total width of the flag except for the red stripe which is 2/6 of the total width of the Costa Rica flag.

Every color of the Costa Rica flag symbolizes important facets of Costa Rica. The color blue means the sky, opportunities at reach, perseverance to achieve a goal, intellectual thinking, eternity, infinity, and principles of the religious and spiritual desires.

The color white in the Costa Rica flag represents clear thinking, wisdom, happiness, power and beauty of the sky, and the inspiration of initiatives to search for new accomplishments, and the peace of Costa Rica.

The color red symbolizes the warmth of the Costa Rican people, their love of life, the blood they shed for freedom, and their generous character.

The national flag of Costa Rica or the state and war flag or the “Pabellón Nacional” includes the Coat of Arms of Costa Rica, and symbolizes the country and is used by public private buildings such as schools, public offices, foreign missions, government offices, and merchant ships. The Coat of Arms of Costa Rica portrays an important overview of the nation; the two ships on any side represent the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, both of which edge Costa Rica. They also stand for the maritime history of the country. The three mountains signify the three main mountain ranges of Costa Rica, and set to demonstrate the location of the country relative to the two bodies of sea. The existing coat of arms has seven stars that represent the seven provinces of Costa Rica. The old coat of arms had five stars that represented the nations that had made up the United States of Central America in the early 19th century. The nation’s name is on the white banner at the top of the shield and above this is a blue scroll that says “Central America”.

For civil activities or parties, the people use the national flag without the coat of arms printed on the center of the red strip called “Bandera”.