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Livonia (LV)

by rob raeside 5-JUN-1997

The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten carried an article on 23-JUN-1996 about the Livonians. This is a small people native to Latvia, living in on the northern tip of the 'peninsula' between the bay of Riga and the Baltic sea. They are only 250-300 people today in Latvia, and only 11 worldwide speak the language as their mother tongue. Livonian is a Finno-Ugric language that was codified into a written standard only in 1935. The flag of the Livonians, as shown on a picture and drawing in Aftenposten, is striped green over white over blue (the colours were a bit pale). The middle white stripe seems to be narrower than the stripes above and below, as in the Latvian national flag. Nothing is said about the symbolism or when the flag dates from. However, Aftenposten describes the land of the Livonians as "a natural paradise of green forest, white beaches and blue sea", so that may be a clue. Judging from the newspaper photograph and illustration, the flag is 1:2 in proportions.
jan oskar engene 24-JUN-1996

The Livonian flag was approved at the first meeting of the Livonian Association on April 2, 1923. The flag's colours were chosen because of their close relationship with everyday life that most Livonians led. Blue symbolises the sea, white the sandy beaches characteristic of the area the Livonians inhabit, and green the forest. The size of the stripes is the same as on the Latvian flag, in a ratio of 2:1:2. The flag was blessed and raised for the first time on November 18, 1923, at the Livonian festival in Ire (or Mazirbe, in Latvian).
from the Livonian home page, by Uldis Balodis