Understanding How Flags Originated - By: Justin Davis

Using flags to identify national symbols is closely associated with the rise of nationalism. However, similar symbolic uses may be traced back to the dawn of history. Most remote ancestors of the flags of the nations of the world today were probably elementary tribal symbols-such figures as birds, serpents, or animals.

These were mounted on staffs and carried into battle, perhaps earliest by the Egyptians and later by the Greeks and the Persians. For instance, the lion was widely used as a symbol of strength and courage, and the eagle was often used to signify powerful, swift, and graceful flight, or keen vision. Narrow strip of cloth was attached immediately below the symbol, a practice which has its counterpart today.

The Bible makes a reference to an ensign (a type of flag or banner) in at least two places in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 11:10 it says ?And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people? and in Isaiah 18:3 is written, ?All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains?

Sometimes, the Romans carried a square cavalry banner, or vexillum, which was attached to a crossbar and suspended from a spear. This appeared either with or without designs or devices applied to the cloth. In the early part of the fourth century, Emperor Constantine carried a silk vexillum embroidered with a cross. Succeeding rulers were known to display the banner attached by one edge to the staff so as to allow a free movement in the wind and to facilitate handling; thus the banner became in effect a flag.

Ecclesiastical symbols were used on banners in England at least as early as the time of St. Augustine; the use of heraldic devices developed later. All the early orders of knighthood carried banners of religious significance. One great example is the royal standard of Great Britain, where the three golden lions of England, the red lion rampant of Scotland, and the harp of Ireland are affixed to one flag as a symbol of the unity of the Empire under one king. The union flag, commonly called the Union Jack, appeared first in its old form under James I. Today it consists of Englands St. Georges cross, red with a thin white border, superimposed on Scotlands St. Andrews cross, a white cross in the form of an X against a dark blue field, to which is added the red diagonal Cross of St. Patrick of Ireland.

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