Flag of Argentina

What the flag of Argentina looks like

The flag of Argentina has three horizontal bands of equal height. The top and bottom bands are a light sky blue, known in Spanish as celeste, and the middle band is white. Since 2002 the official proportions are 5:8 (10:16); 9:14 was the official ratio from 1978, and flags of 1:2 and 2:3 are also in use.

In the middle of the white band sits the Sun of May (Sol de Mayo), a golden-yellow sun with a human face. It has 32 rays, alternating between 16 straight and 16 wavy ones. The sun appears on the official flag of the nation, which is used by government institutions and at ceremonies.

There are two versions in common use. The bandera oficial de ceremonia has the Sun of May, and the bandera de ornato, the ornamental flag, has only the three stripes. The plain version is often used by citizens and hung from houses, while the one with the sun is used on official occasions. Both are considered the national flag, although the ornamental one must always be hoisted below the ceremonial one. For the small flag emoji, see the Argentina flag emoji.

Argentina flag meaning and symbolism

The most widespread popular belief is that the sky blue and white stand for the sky and clouds, a reading echoed in some songs to the flag. Historians usually set it aside and point instead to loyalty to the House of Bourbon, since the early government still claimed to act on behalf of the captive Spanish king Ferdinand VII. Other theories point to the colors of the early Buenos Aires coat of arms or to the plumes of the Los Patricios regiment in 1806-07. The light blue and white cockade came before the flag. There is no single agreed meaning.

The Sun of May is better documented. It is a replica of the engraving on the first Argentine coin, approved in 1813, and it is traditionally linked to the sun said to have appeared through the clouds during the May Revolution of 1810. The historian Diego Abad de Santillán claimed it represents Inti, the sun god of the Inca. The 32 rays, 16 straight and 16 wavy, are set by the law.

History of the Argentine flag

General Manuel Belgrano, who led the patriot army, wrote to the government on 26 February 1812 proposing a national flag in the colors of the new cockade, and on 27 February he presented a light blue and white flag at a battery on the Paraná River near Rosario. The ruling Triumvirate in Buenos Aires, still not prepared to declare independence, told him to take it down. Belgrano hoisted it again later that year in Jujuy. Argentines now celebrate Flag Day on 20 June, the anniversary of his death in 1820.

After independence was declared at the Congress of Tucumán on 9 July 1816, the blue and white flag was approved as the national flag on 20 July of that year. The Sun of May was added in 1818, when Juan Martín de Pueyrredón formally established the national flag with the sun as its central symbol. The design has been used with only minor changes since, and later laws and decrees fixed the shades and the form of the sun.

The name Argentina itself comes from the Latin word for silver, argentum, and the Río de la Plata, the River of Silver.

Flags that look like Argentina's

Several flags in the Americas share the blue and white of Argentina's. Uruguay's has nine stripes and a sun in the corner, and the Sun of May appears on it too. The flags of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras also use blue and white bands, and the flag of the United Provinces of Central America that they descend from was based on Argentina's. The main difference is that Argentina's has the Sun of May on a plain three-band design.