The Polish Flag: Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know

full_flaga_polski_forum_770.jpg, default, Poland's flag, photo: Łukasz Głowala / Forum, center, #000000

When did the Polish flag appear? What colour is it actually? What is the proper way to display it? What should you do with it when a storm is coming? And who wrote poems about it? Worthy of its very own Polish National Flag Day, let us tell you everything you ever wanted to know about one of Poland’s main national symbols.

Why is the flag red-and-white?

Thumbnail — Sebastian Sobieski, the Court Standard-Bearer of the Crown, a fragment of the ‘Stockholm Scroll’, photo: Royal Castle in Warsaw

Poland’s national colours are associated with the Polish coat of arms – a white eagle on a red background. The eagle appeared on coins as early as during the reign of Bolesław the Brave, and Wincenty Kadłubek in his Chronica Polonorum (Chronica seu originale regum et principum Poloniae, 13th century) wrote that King Casimir II the Just in 1182 took part in a battle with the Galician princes ‘under the eagle’. According to Beata Wolszczyk from the Museum of Polish History, the eagle was white or even silver-white. The colours of the Polish coat of arms were not accidental: white symbolised spiritual purity and nobility, while red symbolised fire and blood.

Wolszczyk also emphasises that the production of red fabric was very expensive (to obtain a crimson dye, you had to use female Polish cochineal, a tiny red insect), so only well-to-do people could afford it.

Thus, red also signified proximity to the royal court, wealth and power.

A white eagle on a red background was also present on heraldic flags. The symbol of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a red-white-red banner, with a majestic coat of arms at the centre, divided into several parts: it depicted not only the Polish white eagle but also the Pogoń (Pursuer), the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which is now used in Belarus along with the white-red-white flag.

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Polish coat of arms with a white eagle, photo: Wikimedia Commons

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The Polish eagle wears a crown: it symbolises the sovereignty and unity of the state. After Poland regained independence in 1918, the head of the independent government, Jędrzej Moraczewski, wanted the crownless eagle to become the national symbol, but he only enraged the public and the press. The second time the eagle was deprived of its crown was during the era of the People’s Republic of Poland, when the communist republic was not supposed to flaunt a symbol of royalty.

The early days of the Polish flag in official use

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‘The Battle of Praga’ (now a district of Warsaw), which took place in 1831, painting by an unknown artist, 1931, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

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It is believed that the red and white colour combination was first used as a symbol of Poland in 1792, during the first anniversary of the Constitution of 3 May 1791, when women wore white dresses with red ribbons and men wore white-and-red brassards (armbands). Red and white later served as a national symbol in 1831 during the November Uprising, although a decree of the Kingdom of Poland’s Sejm only regulated the use of the military cockade, not the flag. In the 19th century, the red-and-white symbols were worn outside Poland as well – for example by Poles who took part in the revolutions of 1848 (the Springtime of Nations) as well as foreigners who supported Poland in its fight for independence.

Red and white became the official colours of Poland as late as in 1919. The appearance of the Polish flag was inscribed in the law about the coats of arms and colours of the Polish Second Republic. The law stipulated the form (a rectangle with two stripes, the upper one white and the lower one red) and the size (the aspect ratio was to be 5:8). These proportions have remained unchanged to this day, although the key legislative acts specifying the Polish national symbols are the Constitution and the law of 31 January 1980 on the coat of arms, national colours, national anthem and state seals of the Republic of Poland.

Two Polish flags

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Flag of the Polish Navy, photo: Mateusz War / Wikimedia.org

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It will come as a surprise to many that the Polish flag has two variants. The basic one is the already-described red-and-white rectangle, which can always be seen on the streets of Poland on public holidays. But there is also another type of flag, the red-and-white one with an eagle wearing a crown. It was introduced in 1919 and was supposed to be displayed only at Polish diplomatic missions abroad. According to the applicable law, the flag with the coat of arms can also be flown at consulates, airports and on merchant ships.

Shades of red

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Flag of Poland, 1919 version, photo: Wikimedia.org

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Poland’s colours have not changed for several centuries, but their shades have varied. Initially, the red was more of a crimson colour, but after the January Uprising, it was replaced by amaranth. In 1921, Poland returned to crimson, which was replaced by vermilion a few years later. It was not until the end of the 20th century that the colour turned darker again. As for the white, it actually has a silver tinge. However, it is not easy to describe the true colours of the Polish flag even now. The writer and designer Marcin Wicha laments in his book How I Stopped Loving Design:

Text

I tried to verify the official colours of the Polish flag many times. The report of the Supreme Audit Office cites the relevant law:

‘The shades of white and red are defined by law using modern trichromatic coordinates as well as the allowed contrast between white and red. Compliance with this requirement can only be assessed under laboratory conditions.’

[…]

According to Wikipedia, and I am tempted to believe it, the CMYK parameters needed for red-and-white printing have not been defined either (which is a pity, since it would be easier than comparing the hue to a reference sample in a lab). It seems that the commission which was supposed to determine the CMYK composite values did start working on it, but never came to a conclusion.

Author

Trans. NM

Not every red-and-white flag is a national flag

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Kościuszko Mound in Kraków on Polish National Flag Day, photo: Łukasz Gągulski / PAP

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The flag of Poland has defined colours and dimensions and must be mounted on a flagpole. An ordinary red-and-white piece of cloth on a plastic stick, a bicolour rectangle drawn on paper, or a red-and-white T-shirt from a souvenir shop all have one thing in common: they are all items made using the national colours, but they cannot be considered flags. No inscriptions or emblems, such as those of football clubs or place names, may be placed on an authentic national flag. However, a red-and-white piece of cloth with your favourite sports team’s logo will be legal if its dimensions differ from those specified by law. However, it is not advisable to employ the national colours too often; it is better to refer to the national symbols in the appropriate circumstances. And certainly the commercial use of the flag is bad manners.

Handling the flag

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The brick lighthouse in Świnoujście, photo: Kacper Kowalski / PAP

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According to the law, the flag must be treated with respect, which means that it must be displayed in public places according to established rules. The flag must be clean and ironed; it must not on any account touch the ground or water. In rainy and windy weather, it is better to fold it carefully and wait for the storm to calm down. On no account may the national flag be publicly destroyed or desecrated; this is punishable with a fine or even a year’s imprisonment. A damaged flag cannot be simply thrown away; it should be burned in private or destroyed by separating the stripes from each other – for example, by secretly cutting it in half.

Polish National Flag Day

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Installation of red-and-white flags in the garden of the Royal Castle in Warsaw to celebrate Polish National Flag Day, photo: Radek Pietruszka / PAP

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In 2004, a new holiday, Polish National Flag Day, was introduced in Poland. It is celebrated between International Workers’ Day and Constitution Day on 3rd May. This date, 2nd May, was chosen for a reason: on this day in 1945, Polish soldiers who took part in the Battle of Berlin mounted the Polish flag on the Reichstag and on the column in the Grosser Tiergarten park. Moreover, 2nd May is the Day of Poles Abroad. Every year on this day, red-and-white flags are flown on the walls of houses and public institutions, and flags are handed out to passers-by on city streets. Contests and campaigns, cycling competitions, marathons, concerts and quizzes for children dedicated to one of Poland’s main symbols are also organised.

The flag of Poland in culture

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‘Poland’s Wedding to the Sea’ by Wojciech Kossak, photo: Museum of the Polish Army

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At a time when the Poles were deprived of their state, the colours and symbols of their long-lost homeland emboldened the national spirit. The Polish flag inspired many artists and, of course, references to the flag and coat of arms are found in many literary works of the time. The most famous among them is undoubtedly the patriotic poem Polish Child’s Catechism written by Władysław Bełza in 1901. Every Polish pupil knows it by heart even today.

Poets of the Interwar period were also inspired by the flag of Poland, the symbol of the reborn state. In 1935, the poetess Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska wrote a poem titled National Colours (originally: Barwy Narodowe):

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Blanched and bloodied,

Bloodstained and white, linen

Wound dressing, you are proclaimed The Banner,

You have staunched the appalling gore.

The wind unfurls this testament to carnage,

It elevates the heroic bandage,

This memento,

This debt

And this moral.

Author

Trans. Barbara Bogoczek & Tony Howard

Many writers and poets have written about the flag of Poland since then. Perhaps the most poignant poem is that by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczynski titled Song of the Flag (originally: Pieśń o Fladze), which the poet wrote in 1944 at a prisoner-of-war camp in Altengrabow near Magdeburg, after having learnt about the defeat of the Warsaw Uprising. The lyrical subjects of the poem are Polish flags that participated in various battles of World War II and remained on the battlefield:

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[…]
One dark night the three of them met.
One gives heart to the others: - Don’t fret,
no, do not now droop so dejected.

We shall not be destroyed by hell’s fires,
we shall each other inspire.

No bomb nor gold ever shall hurt you
and always you’ll hold to your virtue.

And you will be never all-white,
and you will never be red,

white-and-red shall stay ever your colour,
like a tempestuous aurora,

red, like a wine-chalice red,
white, like a snowstorm wide-spread,
ever beloved and dearest,
this white and this red.
[…]

Author

Trans. Marcel Weyland

Originally written in Russian, translated by Natalia Mamul, Nov 2021

Language English