Flag of Jamaica

The flag of Jamaica was adopted on 6 August 1962, the day Jamaica became independent from the United Kingdom. The flag consists of a gold saltire, which divides the flag into four sections: two of them green and two black. Jamaica's national flag is also sometimes referred to as "The Cross" or as the "Black, Green, and Gold" due to its form and colours. The flag of Jamaica has been said to have been directly inspired by the national flag of Scotland.

Prior to Jamaica's independence, the Jamaican government ran a flag design competition for Jamaica's new flag. Over 360 designs were submitted, and several of these original submissions are housed in the National Library of Jamaica. However, the competition failed to yield a winner, and a bipartisan committee of the Jamaican House of Representatives eventually came up with the modern design. It was originally designed with horizontal stripes, but this was considered too similar to the flag of Tanganyika (as it was in 1962), and so the saltire was substituted. John McGhie claims the saltire design was directly inspired by the flag of Scotland. An earlier interpretation of the colours was "hardships there are but the land is green and the sun shineth", as stated in the government Ministry Paper No. 28 – Jamaican National Flag dated 22 May 1962. Gold recalls the shining sun, black reflects hardships, and green represents the land. It was changed in 1996 to black representing the strength and creativity of the people which has allowed them to overcome difficulties, gold for the wealth of the country and the golden sunshine, and green for the lush vegetation of the island, as well as…