Identity / Identidad
Rupit, Barcelona (Spain).
ENGLISH
The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signaling and identification, This was especially used in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used). National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are used in messaging, advertising, or for other decorative purposes. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica: "Flags recognizable as such were the invention, almost certainly, of the ancient Indians or the Chinese." The usage of flags spread from India and China to neighboring Burma, Siam, and southeastern Asia.
Persians used Derafsh-e-kaviani as the flag, at the time of Achaemenian dynasty at 550–330 B.C. Afterwards it was used in different look by the late Sassanid era (224-651). It was also representative of the Sassanid state - Ērānshāhr, the "Kingdom of Iran" - and may so be considered to have been the first "national flag" of Iran.
Originally, the standards of the Roman legions were not flags, but symbols like the eagle of Augustus Caesar's Xth legion; this eagle would be placed on a staff for the standard-bearer to hold up during battle. But a military unit from Dacia had for a standard a dragon with a flexible tail which would move in the wind; the legions copied this; eventually all the legions had flexible standards — our modern-day flag.
During the Middle Ages, flags were used mainly during battles to identify individual leaders: in Europe the knights, in Japan the samurai, and in China the generals under the imperial army.
From the time of Christopher Columbus onwards, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals; see International maritime signal flags.
As European knights were replaced by centralized armies, flags became the means to identify not just nationalities but also individual military units. Flags became objects to be captured or defended. Eventually these flags posed too much danger to those carrying them, and by World War I these were withdrawn from the battlefields, and have since been used only at ceremonial occasions.
More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag
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CASTELLANO
Una bandera es una pieza de tela, normalmente rectangular, aunque puede adoptar formas muy variadas, que se sujeta por uno de sus lados a un asta, o se cuelga de una driza. Se utiliza para identificar o representar a una persona, o grupo de personas. También puede servir para trasmitir señales. El estudio de las banderas se conoce como vexilología.
Es posible considerar a los vexilos (palabra origen del término), utilizados por los legionarios durante la civilización romana, como las primeras insignias empleadas en Europa. En España, los visigodos siguieron utilizando este tipo de estandartes rígidos con alguna clase de paño; pero no fue sino hasta la invasión musulmana cuando se comenzaron a utilizar lo que actualmente conocemos como "banderas", ya que el uso de tejidos ligeros, como la seda, en los estandartes tuvo su origen en Oriente, siendo los musulmanes y los cruzados los primeros en implantar su uso en Europa. Las banderas se convirtieron en guiones y estandartes representativos de Reyes y Señores (específicamente, de sus linajes o casas reales), más que de territorios o naciones, tal como hoy son utilizadas las enseñas nacionales.
Más info: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandera
Identity / Identidad
Rupit, Barcelona (Spain).
ENGLISH
The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signaling and identification, This was especially used in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used). National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are used in messaging, advertising, or for other decorative purposes. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica: "Flags recognizable as such were the invention, almost certainly, of the ancient Indians or the Chinese." The usage of flags spread from India and China to neighboring Burma, Siam, and southeastern Asia.
Persians used Derafsh-e-kaviani as the flag, at the time of Achaemenian dynasty at 550–330 B.C. Afterwards it was used in different look by the late Sassanid era (224-651). It was also representative of the Sassanid state - Ērānshāhr, the "Kingdom of Iran" - and may so be considered to have been the first "national flag" of Iran.
Originally, the standards of the Roman legions were not flags, but symbols like the eagle of Augustus Caesar's Xth legion; this eagle would be placed on a staff for the standard-bearer to hold up during battle. But a military unit from Dacia had for a standard a dragon with a flexible tail which would move in the wind; the legions copied this; eventually all the legions had flexible standards — our modern-day flag.
During the Middle Ages, flags were used mainly during battles to identify individual leaders: in Europe the knights, in Japan the samurai, and in China the generals under the imperial army.
From the time of Christopher Columbus onwards, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals; see International maritime signal flags.
As European knights were replaced by centralized armies, flags became the means to identify not just nationalities but also individual military units. Flags became objects to be captured or defended. Eventually these flags posed too much danger to those carrying them, and by World War I these were withdrawn from the battlefields, and have since been used only at ceremonial occasions.
More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag
------------------------------------
CASTELLANO
Una bandera es una pieza de tela, normalmente rectangular, aunque puede adoptar formas muy variadas, que se sujeta por uno de sus lados a un asta, o se cuelga de una driza. Se utiliza para identificar o representar a una persona, o grupo de personas. También puede servir para trasmitir señales. El estudio de las banderas se conoce como vexilología.
Es posible considerar a los vexilos (palabra origen del término), utilizados por los legionarios durante la civilización romana, como las primeras insignias empleadas en Europa. En España, los visigodos siguieron utilizando este tipo de estandartes rígidos con alguna clase de paño; pero no fue sino hasta la invasión musulmana cuando se comenzaron a utilizar lo que actualmente conocemos como "banderas", ya que el uso de tejidos ligeros, como la seda, en los estandartes tuvo su origen en Oriente, siendo los musulmanes y los cruzados los primeros en implantar su uso en Europa. Las banderas se convirtieron en guiones y estandartes representativos de Reyes y Señores (específicamente, de sus linajes o casas reales), más que de territorios o naciones, tal como hoy son utilizadas las enseñas nacionales.
Más info: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandera