Flag of Lebanon
The flag of Lebanon was officially launched on 7 December 1943.
Importance
The central symbol of the national flag goes back to the Maronite Christians, who led a white flag with a cedar in the 18th and 19th centuries. This tree, which symbolizes peace, brightness and eternity, is typical of this area and is therefore also often mentioned in the Bible. Thus it is written in Psalm 92.12, that "the just shall [ ... ] grow like a cedar in Lebanon ."
Often the cedar appears too small in the flag. The official rules on the appearance of the flag provide that the cedar must touch the red stripes.
The white color represents the purity and the snow that covered the summit of Lebanon, and red for the blood of the martyrs of the independence of Lebanon.
Some of the colors white and red are interpreted with the symbol of the two feuding tribes of the Yemenis and Kayssiten which have split the Lebanese society 634-1711 into two groups ( Christians and Muslims).
This interpretation, however, by others seen as incorrect because those who introduced the flag, did not think about the split, but to the agreement of the Lebanese people against French rule.
There is speculation about connections of the designer of the flag Henri Pharaon to Austria, which might have affected the color of the national flag with the red-white- red flag of Austria. The Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported in 2005 that the Christian parliamentarians and repeated Lebanese Foreign Minister an " enthusiastic friend of Austria " was. From his family come, according to the report, several generations Honorary Consuls of the Empire of Austria and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In addition, Pharaon was the founder of the Lebanese- Austrian Friendship Association. As more fathers of the national flag are Maroun Canaan, Saeb Salam, Sabri Hamadeh, Rachid Beydoun, Saadi al - Mounla and Mohamed al -Fadl, who chose to Henry Pharaon, the new national flag
The white strip of cedar is twice as wide as one of red stripes.
Historical flags
There are allegations that the Phoenicians had 1000 BC a vertically divided blue - red flag used, but these are not used.
One of the oldest flags in the area of present-day Lebanon may have been the white flag of the Umayyads. It was followed by the black flag of the Abbasid Caliphate ( 750-1258 ). The Chehab Emirate carried out a blue flag with a white crescent ( 1697-1842 ).
1920 France received the League of Nations mandate over the territories occupied by him since 1919, Lebanon. First, for the whole mandate territory ( with Syria) may use a flag that corresponded to the Chehab emirate, with the French tricolor in the naval jack. But in August the Mandate of " Greater Lebanon " received its own flag. Adopted on May 23, 1926 Constitution of Lebanon, she confirmed in Article 5: " The Lebanese flag is blue, white, red with a cedar in the white part ." This cedar was defined as uniform green, but she was often shown in brown and green flag of manufacturers, which is used for most of today's flag, which in 1943 replaced the old flag.
? Flag of the Ottoman Empire
2:3? Lebanese flag after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918
French mandate July to August 1920
2:3? Greater Lebanon, 1920-1943