Senate President Nicolae Ciuca participated on Wednesday in the national flag raising public ceremony held in Bucharest’s Tricolor Square, located in front of the National Military Club Palace.

Also attending the ceremony organized by the National Defence Ministry were, among others, deputy Mircea Chelaru; Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Defence, general Mihai Somordolea; Secretary of State with the National Defence Ministry Eduard Bachide; president of the War Veterans National Association, retired Brigadier General Ioan Danila; Bucharest Prefect Mihai Toader; and commander of the Bucharest garrison, lieutenant-colonel Sorinel-Marian Paun.

The national flag was hoisted on the mast in front of the National Military Club Palace to the tunes of the national anthem, after being blessed by the priest of the 30th Mihai Viteazu Guard Regiment and kissed by the officials present at the ceremony.

Politicians, local officials, military attachés of the embassies accredited to Romania, war veterans were present at the event.

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The National Flag Day, created by Law No. 96 of May 20, 1998, is observed every year on June 26.

According to Article 12 of the Romanian Constitution of 2003, the flag is one of the state’s national symbols, along with the coat of arms, seal, the anthem „Awaken, Romanian” and the December 1 National Day.

Under the same article, the Constitution provides that „the flag of Romania is tricolor, with the colored bands placed vertically, in the following order, from the hoist outwards: blue, yellow, red.”

The Romanian flag must be permanently flown on the buildings and the headquarters of public authorities and institutions, at the headquarters of political parties, trade unions, educational and cultural institutions, at border crossing points, as well as at international airports.

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Amid the 1848 revolutionary upheaval, when new tricolor flags were raised as symbols of emerging national states, the Romanian revolutionaries who were in Paris at the outbreak of the revolution hoisted the blue, yellow and red flag, which was then officially confirmed as the national flag of Romania through Decree No. 252 of the Bucharest provisional government, although initially tricolor flags with the bands arranged horizontally had also appeared.

The provisional government affirmed that „The national flag shall have three colors – blue, yellow and red”, and the motto, which shall be written both on flags and on public monuments and decrees, shall read „Justice – Brotherhood.”

The red-yellow-blue tricolor flag thus decreed on June 14/26, 1848 was consecrated the next day, during the meeting of the Grand National Assembly on Filaret Field in central-western Romania, which is since called Freedom Field, according to the volume „The History of Romania by Dates” (Encyclopedic Publishing House, 2003).

Since then, the flag has not undergone major changes, only the distribution of colors (in terms of proportion and position) has changed to a certain extent, being equalized after the 1848 Revolution.

Sigillographic documents attest to the fact that, in certain historical periods, the Romanian flag had the three colors arranged horizontally, with red in the upper part, yellow in the middle and blue at the base. Also, the proportion of colors was not the same as now (33 percent for each color band).

AGERPRES