The Vikings flew flags on their ships but these did not have much resemblance to the presentday national flags of the Nordic countries. The Vikings picked up the habit from the Arabs who got the idea from the Chinese. For the Chinese the colors of their silk flags represented philosophical and religious concepts, while the Arabs and Vikings used the colors to represent dynasties and individual chieftains.

The general design of the Nordic flags was born when medieval knights started using banners with crosses on their third crusade to the Holy Land at the end of the 12th century. The early flags were square, just like the Swiss flag, but then they were extended from Sweden’s 10/16 to the Åland Islands 10/19 proportions.

In 1809 Sweden lost its eastern provinces, including the island of Åland to Russia. Finland became an autonomous grand duchy under the Russian czar. Finland’s national poet J. L. Runeberg, in his Tales of the Ensign Stål (in 1860), hails a flag that led the troops to victory in years past by saying there is still a patch left with Finland’s old colors. Did he refer to the Swedish colors blue and yellow, or to the red and gold in Finland’s coat of arms (a yellow lion on red background, with silver swords and heraldic roses)? At the same time Zacharias Topelius promoted blue and white as colors for the Finns, white for the winter snow and blue for the thousand lakes. The debate about the proper choice, often fiery and violent, continued for decades.

It is of interest to note that Finnish sail boats from 1863 carried a flag identical to the present national flag, a blue cross on a white background. This was the flag of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club (Kejserliga flodsegelsällskapet), and the Czar gave the newly founded yacht club in Helsinki (Nyländska jaktklubben) the right to use that flag, allowing for the addition of the coat of arms of the province of Nyland in the inner-upper corner. Other Finnish yacht clubs followed this lead, and thus the blue and white colors became known as Finnish all over the Baltic Sea and coasts. The Russian merchant ships, mostly Finnish built and commanded by Finnish sea captains, carried the Russian red-blue-white colors.

The debate over the colors of the national flag continued even after Finland declared its independence on December 6, 1917. It was finally in May 1918 that the present blue and white flag was adopted. By choos-ing the cross shape, Finland also clearly wished to signify its ties with the other Nordic countries. And what happened to the yacht clubs? Well, they simply added a thin white cross inside the blue cross of the now national flag. Norman Westerberg