Flag of Vanuatu

Flag of Vanuatu

Melanesia

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CapitalPort Vila
Population300,019
RegionOceania
Area12,189 km²
LanguagesBislama, English, French
CurrencyVanuatu vatu
PeopleNi-Vanuatu

About

Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu, is an archipelagic country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is 1,750 km (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 540 km (340 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji.

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The Flag

History

The national flag of Vanuatu was adopted on 18 February 1980.

Design & symbolism

The green represents the richness of the islands, the red symbolises blood which unites humanity as humans, and the black the Melanesian ni-Vanuatu people. The Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Father Walter Lini, requested the inclusion of yellow and black fimbriations to make the black stand out. The yellow Y-shape (pall) represents the shape of Vanuatu islands on the map and the light of the gospel going through the pattern of the islands in the Pacific Ocean (approximately 83% of the people of Vanuatu profess Christianity). The emblem in the black is a boar's tusk—the symbol of customs and tradition but also prosperity. It is worn as a pendant on the islands—along with two leaves of the local namele tree. These leaves are supposed to be a token of peace, and their 39 leaflets represent the original 39 members of the Parliament of Vanuatu.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photos

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