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National symbols

We all need something to describe our country with, to give our nation and the people in that nation an identity. That’s why we have the flag and the national coat of arms, to give our nation an identity.

The Swedish flag

One thing that marks each country’s identity is of course the flag. Each flag has a different story and means different things. Look at the flags in the middle-east for example, many flags there have the sign of their religion, Islam (a white half-moon in the top corner of the flag). The religion in the middle-east is after all a very important thing and therefore it’s part of the flag. At the first look of it, Sweden’s flag might look simple with no religious signs, but if you take a closer look, and turn the flag, you can see it’s a cross. Because the main religion in Sweden is Christianity the flag has a cross on it.

Blue as the sky and yellow as the sun

But just because the Swedish flag might look simple doesn’t mean it has no story. In fact, the story of the Swedish flag is an old one, over 600 years old.

The history of the Swedish flag

The first time the blue-yellow colours were used was in the 15th-century. It was Karl Knutsson, a Swedish king, who first used it as a banner in the war against Denmark. In that time, Sweden was in a lot of wars with it’s neighbours, including Russia, Prussia and Denmark. We have a Flag-day here in Sweden , a day when we celebrate our flag (the 6th June). We have had this day since 1916. The 6th June is also Sweden’s national day. The 6th June is an very important day in Swedish history . It is the day when Gustav Vasa, a famous Swedish king, was elected to be the monarch of Sweden and it is also the day we won our independence and broke up from the Nordic union. Another important 6th June was in 1809 when Sweden got a new government and they brought in some new civil rights to the Swedish people. The government we have today was accepted in 6th June 1974. Therefore the 6th June is a very important day in Swedish history.

The Swedish national coat of arms

The flag itself doesn’t tell anything, or very little, about the country. But the country’s national coat of arms does. The National coat of arms often have signs that refers to old history of the country, or when the country was at it’s greatest state. But it doesn’t have to be an old sign. North-Korea for example has a power plant on theirs. Then what about the Swedish National coat of arms? Well, we Swedes just don’t have one National coat of arms, but two. There’s one big National coat of arms and there’s one small but the most common one is the small one.

The small national coat of arms

The big national coat of arms

As you see, the small National coat of arms has three crowns on it, and Sweden is pretty well-known for it’s three crowns. The national hockey team here in Sweden is in fact named "Three crowns". But what do the crowns mean and why do we Swedes have them on our National coat of arms. That’s an old story that goes back in the 13th century.

The history of the Swedish national coat of arms

Because Sweden is a monarchy, it has had a lot of kings. And a king needs a banner and a national coat of arms. One of these Swedish kings was Albrekt of Mecklenburg. This man was actually a German but nonetheless a Swedish king so he took these three crowns as a national coat of arms for Sweden. But the Swedish national coat of arms was not alone in Europe to have these crowns. The symbol was well-known and had been used for many purposes since 1164. Why? Well, in 1164 it is said that the remains of "three holy men" or "the three emperors", which means the three holy men from the bible, was buried Köln. There was the birth of the three crowns. Because nobody had used the symbol for an entire nation yet there were no complaints against the Swedish king for using such a holy sign. When king Albrekt later died the three crowns were also seen in Norway and Denmark when Sweden, Norway and Denmark had a kind of union.

Sources:
Internet:
http://weather.alk.edu.stockholm.se/sokrates/folkaret/svenska_flaggan.htm
http://www.abc.se/~m225/exlibris/skrifter/exlaveb53.html
Books:
National encyklopedia book nr.22
By:
Erik Höglund Sp2a