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Greenland Flag
SKU: GRL35P
The flag of Greenland was designed by native son Thue Christiansen. It
features two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a large disk
slightly to the hoist side of center. The top half of the disk is red, the
bottom half is white. Locally it is known as Erfalasorput, which is
Eskimo-Aleut for "our flag", but Aappalaartoq (meaning "the red")
is also used for both the Greenlandic flag and the
Dannebrog. Today Greenlanders display both the Erfalasorput and the
Dannebrog, often side-by-side.
Greenland first entertained the idea of a flag of its own in 1973 when five
Greenlanders proposed a green, white and blue flag. The following year, a
newspaper solicited eleven design proposals of which all but one of which
was a Nordic cross. After polling its readers it was determined that the
Dannebrog was better liked than any so the issue was dropped.
In 1978, Denmark granted home rule to Greenland, making it an equal member of
the Danish Kingdom. The home rule government held an official call for flag
proposals, receiving 555 (of which 293 were submitted by Greenlanders). The
deciding committee came to no consensus, so more proposals were solicited.
During this round of entries, the present red-and-white design by Christiansen
was submitted and narrowly won over a green-and-white Nordic cross by a
vote of fourteen to eleven. Christiansen's red-and-white flag was officially
adopted June 21, 1985.
To honor the tenth anniversary of the Erfalasorput, Greenland's Post
Office issued commemorative stamps and a leaflet by its Christiansen.. He
described the white stripe as representing the glaciers and ice cap; the red
stripe, the ocean; the red semicircle, the fjords; and the white semicircle, the
icebergs and pack ice. The design is also reminiscent of the setting sun
half-submerged below the horizon and reflected on the sea.
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