Every country has its own Flag Day. This celebration vividly reflects the sovereignty of the country, its independence and self-esteem. The flag is the national symbol displayed around the country, the thing that makes every person proud. And now the riddle: what is the only country which flag to fly over a whole continent? See the answer below
OK? The right answer is, of course, Australia. Our best congratulations to you and Happy Flag Day! Yes, Australian National Flag Day isn’t a public holiday, but it is a date to commemorate the day when the country’s National Flag was first flown. It was in 1901, when Australian Prime Minister Edmund Barton announced the winners of a competition to design a national flag. There were 32,823 participants in the design competition. It took almost a week to judge and, as a result, five almost identical entries were chosen. The prize money amounted to £200 (approximately $25,000) and the winners shared this fund and received £40 each. They were Ivor Evans, a 14-year-old schoolboy from Melbourne; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to an optician from Sydney; Egbert John Nuttall, an architect from Melbourne; Annie Dorrington, an artist from Perth; and William Stevens, a ship’s officer from Auckland, New Zealand. Yes, two out of the five prizewinners were teenagers, this fact was very extraordinary!
Two designs were in fact announced as the winners – a blue flag to be used by the government, and an identical flag on a red background which would be used by merchant ships. One can know the flag of Australia: a blue field with the Union Jack, and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star. The fly contains a representation of the Southern Cross constellation (formally known as “Crux Australis”), made up of five white stars, one of them is small five-pointed and four, larger, seven-pointed ones. They named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon after the first letters of the Greek alphabet. The Australian National Flag was officially flown “aloft and free” for the first time from the dome of the Royal Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne on 3 September 1901. The name of John Christian Vaughan, a noted historian and vexillographer (i.e. researcher of the history and usage of world flags), should also be mentioned. He proposed to observe 3 September as “National Flag Day”. Since 1996 this date has been officially known as Australian National Flag Day when the Governor General, Sir William Deane, had officially proclaimed the very date of September, the 3rd as Australian National Flag Day.
Ukrainian girls join all Australians to celebrate of their national symbol and wish Happy Flag Day!