Funnily enough, most of the flag designs shown in the end weren't made for a referendum to choose the flag, but they are different designs proposed for the flag before 1917 by newspapers or influencial figures, along with designs used by some private citizens on their property.

13:09 that flag at the bottom right is still in use as the Finnish war flag. It has a swallowtail design, which means it has those three triangle shaped bits at the right side that were named after swallowtail birds' wing shape and it still has the coat of arms in it.

The Finnish flag is straightforward without extra frills. Perfectly suited to the general temperament of the people it’s representing.

One aspect that might have been missed is the position of Svecomans vs Fennomans. I haven't looked into this myself, so I am not certain of it. However, I've been told that early into Finland's independence movement, the Svecomans preferred the red and yellow colour scheme, while the Fennomans preferred the blue and white. Presumably, this is because the Svecomans wanted to appeal to ideas of tradition and history under Swedish rule, while the Fennomans wanted something more unique and original to Finland.

7:45 Finland DID actually adopt a lion flag based on the coat of arms for a few months. It was changed because it resembled too much of the red flag of the red guards that were defeated in the Finnish Civil War and also because blue and white were felt as the national colours (especially among the Finnish speaking population) even before Finnish independence.

I’ve always loved the Finnish flag. It’s striking in simplicity.

Thank you for putting in that extra bit of effort and pronouncing foreign names and words really well✅ Nice video, greetings from Finland🇫🇮

Maybe the current Finnish flag is a bit boring but I like the simple elegance of it. Maybe it's because I'm Swedish but I like the typically Nordic minimalism and I also like the fact that all Nordic flags have similar designs.

"..the snow that covers Finland during the winter... and the other seasons" So true 😄

Im swedish and think you pronounced Finlands flagga really good

I was with my mom taking my brother's cat to the vet and I saw the State Flag flown outside the vet, because there was a local police station in the same building. It was really handsome flag, I of course took couple of pictures of it. 🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮

big props for actually trying to pronounce the finnish words/names. in most videos they lazily just read the like they were english which hurts my soul

During independence we used a red flag with the lion in the middle for a very short time. In the history department building in Helsinki they have put one of the original flags on the wall. This particular flag flew over the Sea fortress Viapori (modern Suomenlinna) during the independence.

One thing you didn't mention about the coat of arms changing during Russian rule was that because the sword symbolized the west (Finland and Sweden) and the sabre being trampled on symbolized the east (Russia), it was changed so that the lion held the sabre with one arm to symbolize the change of becoming associated with Russia rather than simply standing over it.

As a Finn and someone who knows how hard our language can be, the Finnish pronunciation wasn't bad at all at the intro! Sounded a bit unsure but tbh thats just what it is when pronouncing languages you don't normally speak. The whole video is wonderful and goes over nicely the history of why the flag became what it is. Also managed to explain some of the key history points of Finland.

I think that the Finnish flag stands out in simplicity much like Japan's. It's very fitting. I like blue better than red, though. I tend to associate it with bloodshed.

A correction at 03:36. It is not a lion it is a bear,see the short tail. It is the coat of arms of "northern Finland", the coat of arms with the shield is for that at the time was known as southern Finland. Ann really early version of finlands coat of arms consisted of these two arms quarted with the wasa coat of arms in the middle probaly mirroring how swedens coat of arms was quarted with the three crowns and lion weapon. One theory of there the lion came from is It that the area was contested by the Russian tsar who in a bit of medival petitessnes, refused to speak with the swedish king who he saw beneath him, insted sending the lord of Novgorod. As sweden did not have vasals it quickly announced the creation of the "storfurstendömet" Finland and gave it a weapon with a lion witch had higer status than a bear. Giving sweden a vasal on the same level as novgorod making the king of sweden technically equal to the tsar.

That is the tomb of Gustav I Vasa. Finland actually had a different flag right after the independence, the lion flag. It was used for some five months.

You could do an episode about the finnish swastica that also has an interesting history and is currently disapering from state symbols. Also, there is another oficial flag of Finland that is the swedish speaking minority flag which is a yellow cross on a red background and can be seen quite often in swedish speaking regions

I always enjoy a lesson in flags, especially this one as it is my father’s heritage. Thanks

The yacht club's flag used a navy blue cross with a really thin white cross in the middle. Finnish yacht club flags still follow that design, with the addition of the club's own coat of arms or logo in the upper corner. The standardized flag's cross is royal blue i.e. medium blue. However, in mass-produced flags, this is often replaced with a darker blue.

Excellent pronunciation btw! Thank you!

Finland was actually supposed to be a monarchy, and that monarchy would've adopted the red lion flag. But when our monarch-to-be, a german by the name of Frederick Charles, couldn't make it because Germany lost The Great War, Finland chose to be a democracy instead to distance themselves from the Second Reich. That is what we learned in school, anyway.

Finland is the country where l was born and raised; l have a serious soft spot in my heart for Finland. lt is always great to see interesting things about Finland, which has never ceased to fascinate me. Even though l haven't lived in Finland for many years, l am still something of a nationalist; l certainly am a big fan of the Finnish Flag, and l certainly don't want to change it!

Very good :). Didn't know a lot of it so thank you for a general summary 👍

My dud Hilbert, 3:32 on Johan coat of arms is a bear not a lion. Do you not see the stubby tail? Its the coat of arms of Satakunta region of Finland. Look at the stone coat of arms you get when you google imege "Arms of Duke John of Sweden"(was second picture for me)

your video is very wellgnouing,expert and professional

0:38 That pronunciation was amazing! Wonderful job!

Please do the flag of Estonia aswell!! This was a great video, thoroughly enjoyed it!

I think Flag number 11, one suggested by someone going by username Maamies would've been nice. Finns are already quite different from other Nordic people so having a flag that's nothing like what they've got would be cool. I also really like the idea of the flag being just one big Finnish Lion as shown by flag number 21.

Karelian coat of arms makes me thirsty for some BEER BEER!!

14:27 for the snow that covers finland during winter... and also the other seasons XD

Cool video

During that russification period many Finnish boys declined school altogether as they didn't want to learn russian (which was an obligatory subject).

Interesting video. Even though I'm Finnish, there was a lot of new information here. Thanks. P.S. The Finnish flag may be boring, but it is the most beautiful of all flags. 😉

12:25 top left flag is used by Åland, an autonomous region of Finland

Quick note - The first flag of independent Finland was the red lion flag (number 21 seen in 12:49 ). This however stayed only a couple months, until the civil war where the opposing forces were pro-russian, communist red movement, and pro-finnish white movement. This war resulted in the defeat of the reds, and afterwards they decided to go with the current flag ( 13:37 ) because the original red flag was deemed to be in favor of the recently defeated red movement, and they didn't want the new government to feel any relation to the communist reds.

12:31 The flag at the top left is actually the modern flag of the autonomous majority Swedish speaking Finnish island of Åland And the yellow cross on red background is used by the Finland's Swedish as their symbol

Its fun hear you saying finish words because im from finland

Thanks for covering my country :D you didnt do too bad trying Finnis words, it was cute actually :D

Expectation: How did the Finnish flag change Reality: How did the Finnish coat of arms change

3:15 - Not a dagger, neither is it in the next part. You may call it a short sword or a sword. Getting lengthy swords onto emblems and badges can be challenging. The near equal length of the scimitar should tell you everything you need to know.

Flag number 19 (?) at 12:38 in the video is the unofficial flag of the Finland-Swedes (The Swedish speaking minority in Finland)

Hilbert, the policy of russification was also "highly popular" with native people in other areas in the times of the Soviets.

Kudos again Gilbert. However you missed a couple of important points. The blue and white combination was originally also a loyalist proclamation towards the emperor or Tsar as red and yellow referred to the swedish coat of arms. The other important fact omitted is the civil war on 1918 on which the losing wore red. So the victorious conservatives and various allies now chose blue and white as the colours of the new republic. So curiously the symbolism changed and the russian origins of the flag seldom mentioned.

Hey, great video! One small thing that I want to point out is that while your pronunciation of Swedish is great, that's not how we pronounce it in Finland.

Really interesting!

didnt even explain why the lion sticks the sword in his own head.

When it comes to history and adoption of the Finnish Flag, I can't help but always remember a scene from a movie Raja 1918/The Border: They've just rised the newly chosen Cross Flag at the Border Station. They've have had kinda tense discussions over the Flag Topic in last days. The Bossman comes to work, looks up in disgust and in essence asks/demands: "The hell is that? Get that rag off of the pole!" and someone replies: "No can do. That's the flag they (government) chose." The Actor portrays the disappointment in great way if I remember right.

Suomi :)

Kudos for actually trying to do a correct pronounciation at 0:40. Many don't even try. It wasn't that far off either. It sounded a bit as if you were speaking with the Swedish accent.

I think if it weren't the current one (and the feelings associated with the blue-white flag), I'd most prefer #37. Would've been awesome. They were also designed by the most prominant painter in Finland at the time, Gallen-Kallela.

As far as other countries go, I saw a monument in Sarajevo showing all the historical flags of Bosnia lined up chronologically so perhaps do that? I think the display went Banate, Kingdom, the flag of Ottoman Bosnia, a flag Bosniak landholders used when rebelling against Ottoman government reforms, Austrian Bosnia, socialist Bosnia, the 90s era flag with the arms of the kingdom on a white field, and the modern flag. Serbia had an interesting situation where post war they held a referendum on the flag, coat of arms, and anthem. The choices of flag were with a red star (as it had been in Yugoslavia) or a blank tricolour, and the red star won but the referendum didn’t have enough turnout so the government just chose a tricolour with the coat of arms (and they chose a modified version of the old coat of arms of the kingdom of Serbia with an eagle and crown despite a simple shield with the tetragramic cross winning that portion of the referendum). At this point a lot of monarchists and conservatives who LARP as monarchists were in the government so restoring more monarchical symbols, though I think putting the COA on the flag was good to distinguish Serbia from Russia (same tricolour just upside down) and Republika Srpska (Serbian tricolour with no emblem). They did similar things for the anthem, going with the monarchical anthem which lost the referendum rather than the winner, Serbia’s national march which commemorates WWI battles against Austria along the river Drina. While the flag changes are boring, the story is interesting. On the other hand if you did Serbia you could consider the many flags of the Serbian revolution and the various medieval flags.

Huge missed opportunity to play Sibelius in the background

Hello Hilbert. Another great video. All - More colours, symbols and heraldry. Aren't you flagging by now? Hilbert - I've started, so I'll Finnish!

Both the Karelian coat of arms and the one with the lion portray two swords. The straight sword is western and the curved sword (saber) eastern. Says it all, really.

Some of the other designs were interesting but I think the current one is the best because it is simple and striking with the dark blue against the white.

12:17 Some additional info about some of the flags: The first page of suggestions were made around 1863, and still under Russian rule, so that's why some of them incorporated the Russian flag. The bigger description says many of them were reconstructed for this 1972 collection from literary descriptions, not images, and some suggestions were too vague to reconstruct. Doesn't say why they were thinking about these in 1863 though. Maybe a suggestion for Russia to give Finland a separate flag or something, idk. The 2nd page are all suggestions after Finland gained independence. Probaby more accurate representations than the 1st page ones. 2nd page's first flag, no. 21 was used as the official flag of the state at first. Then a civil war broke out under 2 months into our independence in 27th January 1918 between "White Finland" and the Finnish Socialist Worker's Republic aka "Red Finland". The Reds lost 15th May 1918, and the White's leadership / the government figured that their current state flag looked too much like the Red's fully red flag. So on 28th of May 1918, a mere two weeks after their victory, the government chose the blue cross flag. (Above corrected by edit) The last one, no. 42 is still an official flag of the Finnish Defence Forces, AKA "a battle flag". There is also a 4th variant, "Tasavallan presidentin valtiolippu" or "The president's state flag". It looks like the battle flag, but also with a blue-yellow, Finnish freedom cross in the top-left corner. A personal note, but I'm Finnish so you could say that I'm biased, but anyway: I think the current flag was a smart choice. The cross connects us with the other Nordic countries, that are culturally similar. The colors represent Finland well, since the nature is very important to us. Also, the blue and white, and a simple design bring a sense of calm and peace, unlike the red and yellow ones. And if Finns are something, they are calm to a fault even.

ONe interesting note to add to the matter you mentioned in a passing of a second or two: The crown was removed from the official state flag due to events transpiring at the end of World War I. We were fighting our independence war from Russia with German help and our original intention was to become Kingdom of Finland, with a German prince as our king. However, as things went from observably bad to obviously worse for the Germans, and their royalty, at the twilight of WWI, the idea of having a German prince as our head of state in the post-war world seemed... Less ideal. The crown used to symbolize that our nation would be a kingdom. Then when that was no longer what we were aiming for, instead we shifted to become a republic like the USA, the crown was removed.

There are 2 other notable versions of the Finnish flag. The Tailed state flag is a tailed version of the state flag, and is the war flag of Finland. The Presidental flag has the tailed state flag, but with a cross of liberty in the upper left corner. Which bears a strong resemblence with the Swastika. (We had it first)

kiitos sina niin todella, tama video on mukava (im learning finnish don't judge XD)

That "and also the other seasons" cracked me up.

3:38 is a bear of Satakunta not lion

Any idea why a yacht club would call themselves 'hunting club' which is what 'jaktklubb' directly translates to? It doesn't make sense to me, granted, yachts are called 'lustjakt' (pleasure yacht/luxury yacht) in Swedish but I have never seen or heard about a yacht club that didn't use the word 'yacht' instead of the Swedish word apart from the ones using the words 'marina' or 'båt klubb' (boat club) instead. I might be missing something here but all males in my family on my father's side dating back to the 1800's have been seamen in Finland except me and my father so I'm surprised not hearing about it before if this is accurate.

The top-left flag in 12:51 with number 21 was used in 1918 for a short period of time from January until May. The picture says: "our lion flag from the start of the century, you were symbol of our independent state in the first months"

your description is a really bad look for an informative video on finland m8. it is nodic, but not scandinavian. The flags are better called noridc aswell, since it is the nordic cross they are based off of.

14:44 Weird that they have moved the vertical line further to the "right" than the other Scandinavian cross flag! At least that's what it looks like in the picture. In some of the painted potential flags on the other had the cross seemed to be almost directly in the middle.

for continent with very few large cats (Lynxes are biggest i can think of) Europe has remarkable amounts of Lions all over their coats of arms, flags etc.

Dude. You prounouce stuff in swedish very well. Like for real holy hell. Finnish too, even though im a half finn from the second generation down i still understand somewhat finnish.

The red background with yellow cross flag is the flag of Swedish Finns, and there was the Svekoman vs Fennoman thing in the early 1900s, which you could make another video on.

12:35 "Others actually incorporate that Russian flag in the corner so perhaps some were not anti-Russian as others had." But the text below the flag you show says (roughly): "This kind flag has been flown e.g. in Olavinlinna [a 15th century castle] in the 1810s." Was this really intended as a suggestion or is it just mentioned as a flag that has been in use in Finland at some point?

Fun fact about Karelia, or Karjala in Finnish, is that there is a beer named Karjala with it's logo as the Karjala coat of arms, one of the most popular mass produced beers in Finland. I would describe the taste as reflecting of our history and current relationship to Karjala, bitter. "Karjala takasin, tuoppi kerrallaan, perkele." - Said my alcoholic uncle.

Good video, regards a Finn 🇫🇮😎👍🏻

What about the trend for English regional flags as a video? Until fairly recently only Cornwall really had a popular locally used flag but now everywhere seems to fly one or more (in the case of Yorkshire's ridings). Often based on local history/tales.

Well, there are more offical flags here that actually isn't plain rectanle. It is similar, but is tabbed on outside edge with 3 (white-blue-white) extensions. That used to be called "War flag" until 1978 when it got renamed to tabbed governmental flag. Now it is used in military parades and other flag flying days of Finnish armed forces. Also, president, secretary of defence, commander of armed forces and commander of navy has their own variations of this flag with a seal of office on upper left corner. Those and actually every flag that contains Finnish coat of arms are reserved for official use only. BTW. I actually don't know if tab/tabbed is right translation for finnish word kielekkeellinen.

The crown was removed in 1920 for a logical reason: the initial decision to introduce a monarchy (even the future German-rooted king had already been selected) was scrapped, and Finland became a republic (with a president as its head of state).

I love Finland, it's history and it's simularities to Irish history,I love the Finnish flag,and also one of their beautiful women whom is my soul mate and partner....hyvä Suomi.

How about the Croatian flag? Medieval examples, to various 17th century examples in the 30 years war, to the Illyrian provinces and Habsburg Monarchy "landesfarben", the Ban's flags like with Ban Josip Jelačić, the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, the Crownlands of Zvonimir by the very end of the Great War, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs - then the dreaded Yugoslavias, ISC and republic today. I think it could be quite interesting! A meaty video if done right!

"You okay, Patrick?" "Finland!"

If I remember correctly, we at a Finnish school were taught that between the Russification and independence, the nationalists started using old Russian flags as their symbol with the red stripe cut off. Then after independence the government decided to choose that color scheme but change the style of the flag to have to the nordic cross design to appear more as belonging to scandinavia rather than Russia.

Heraldic roses Are mark’s of suborinte areas of that coat of arma’s. County’s etc

I wanted to keep making country puns, but I think it’s about time that I Finnish

Your pronunciation is 💯

Hey please increase the volume recoded in the video I have to turn up the volume all the way up with headphones.

Just a small correction, "Jaktklubb" would be translated to Hunting Club or something similar, not Yacht club. So I'm not entirely sure that connection is necessarily true. It is however an interesting video. ^^

There is a third flag too, it's the same as the state flag but right side cut into 3 triangles, giving it a torn look.

The read flag with yellow cross is known as the finnish swedish flag today and can be found in the form of a pennant. In coastal Ostrobothnia the red & yellow pennants are a common sight.

3:30 That's actually supposed to be a bear, not a lion, since it's an early version of the coat of arms of Satakunda, with the only difference being the colours. I don't know if that's also the precursor to the coat of arms of Finland, but it most certainly isn't representing Finland as a whole. The bottom two coats of arms are that of Satakunda and Finland Proper representing Western Finland.

The flag we fly on peace time is called commercial flag, as you explained. And then like comment below stated we also have a war flag, which we fly when country is at war.

I always wondered what happend to it, as a finn ive never actually seen it being used

Always interesting learning about our brothers🇸🇪🇫🇮

greetings from Finland (Terve)

There are three official flaks in Finland. Regular one with blue cross in it and there is covernmental flag whir coat of arms ans it is used on official buildings like presidential castle at Helsinki. Then there is military flagh with coat of arms and triangle sleaves on the right side of the flag.

Good video, but you missed red color at 14:20. Blue is for lakes and sky, white is for snow and the red is for Finnish small talk.

You could do a video explaining the history of Finnish use of the swastika (hakaristi), to clarify to potential viewers the information behind it. It's not at all what many people think so could be interesting.

Finland has several different flags. The Blue-Cross flag, the one with the coat-of-arms (For government and military), and one with the coat-of-arms AND the Cross of Liberty on top left. The one with the Cross of Liberty being one that flies with the President of Finland.

I really like the state flag. It should be the overall flag. The colours work well.

I live in Estonia, and back in Dec. 2022 i was in Vana Tallinn. On one of the alleys i saw the old Finnish flag in this video. Just felt like i needed to point that out Edit: i hate making typos and i hate my keyboard

It's interesting, cause the flag of "Norrland" in Sweden doesn't have an official flag, but we do use flag 13 at 12:41 as our flag. It'd be interesting to see the history on that one at some point.

12:50 the flag number 21 the description says that that flag was used as the official state flag for the first few months of independance.