{"id":4449,"date":"2017-11-09T10:18:13","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T07:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/?p=4449"},"modified":"2020-11-06T18:24:51","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T15:24:51","slug":"what-is-the-meaning-of-the-european-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/4449\/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-european-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the meaning of the European flag?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u03a4\u1f78 \u03ba\u03b5\u03af\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf \u03b5\u1f36\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03b8\u03ad\u03c3\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c3\u03c4\u1f70 \u1f19\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03ac<\/a><\/p>\n

One must be exceedingly desperate to use its flag as an indication that the European Union is founded on the Christian identity! A vision for the Christian identity existed and remains alive, but the European Union is established rather against this vision than adopting it, and the selection of its flag is not an exception.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The connection with the flag of the supposed Christian identity of the European Union comes mainly from Arsene Heitz<\/a>\u2019s assertions. Thirty years and more after the adoption of this flag by the Council of Europe (1955) and after it became the official flag of the European Union (1985), the man who most likely designed it revealed that he was inspired by the Bible and the Roman Catholic liturgical tradition associated with the Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n

A myth develops around Heitz\u2019s faith and the flag almost as a symbol of divine origin, which however won\u2019t explain why, if this is the case, Heitz did not present exclusively the particular design, but suggested a multitude of flags until the relevant institutions selected what they wanted!<\/p>\n

In any case our own issue \u2014the relation of the European flag with Christianity as a source of the European identity\u2014 is not the investigation of Heitz\u2019s intents and statements but the criteria for the final choice of the specific symbol, and above all the function itself of the flag, the impression, sentiments and reasons it actually supports.<\/p>\n

First the most important: ignoring Heitz\u2019s statements and the relevant mythology, will one have by the flag itself any impression whatever of a relationship with Christianity?<\/p>\n

If the European Union, independently of what inspired or not Heitz or anyone who proposed a flag according to one\u2019s taste and inspiration, really wanted to make a reference to Christianity, it would have selected something else but not this vague circle of stars or whatever symbol able to be used by any kind of a union in any place and any culture.<\/p>\n

Indeed, a Christian choice had been attempted just before the current one, when the proposed flag contained \u2014what else?\u2014 the symbol of the Cross, already used by the Pan-European Union of Kalergi.<\/p>\n

What is the real importance of Heitz\u2019s personal motivations and inspirations, when the supposed \u2018Christian fathers\u2019 of Europe, like Kalergi, rushed to dismiss the Cross after the objections of … Turkey?<\/p>\n

This alone would be enough, if one wanted to draw the right conclusions, and is not alone.<\/p>\n

Because just when Turkey objected to the use of the Cross, Kalergi (see his Letter<\/a> to P. Levy, 15 April 1952) proposed without hesitation to be included in the flag along with the Cross the shape of the Crescent!, foreshadowing this way \u2014Kalergi, not an advocate of the multiculturalism of our days\u2014 this soup that the European adventurism has instead of an horizon.<\/p>\n

If Kalergi was unable to discern the importance of the introduction of the crescent in the flag regardless of any probable will of Turkey\u2019s to accept the European customs and be a less Islamic country, he condemned himself much worse than any of his critics could have ever done. Furthermore, it is one thing to support the lay state, and a completely different thing to throw all the religious symbols together into the flag.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we search for subtle details in an academic-scholastic manner trying to understand things, when the answer is obvious in the big picture!<\/p>\n

Whoever keeps a healthy common sense won\u2019t doubt that the flag of the European Union does not make any real reference to Christianity, and therefore is not surprised to learn, for example, that after the claims of Heitz, Paul Levy, the person responsible in the Council of Europe for the design of the flag, stated that he had not any idea whatever about any reference of the flag to religious notions.<\/p>\n

Because, existing or not, all religious references are indeed invisible and therefore useless \u2014 if the flag is meant to inspire people and not only the scholastic investigations of various experts.<\/p>\n

What was then the true symbolism in the flag, the one that made the specific design acceptable? It is reproduced even now in the official pages of the European Union. This flag is adopted as an image of unity and perfection.<\/p>\n

And of course under the number 12 one can put whatever at will, from the signs of the Zodiac to the apostles and the months of the year. And so, if Europe becomes Christian, it will be very well celebrating the flag as a reflection of the Apocalypse, if it becomes Muslim, it will be celebrating the relevant notions, and so on, and if it won\u2019t become anything else but a cohabitation of irrelevant peoples and cultures, this constellation will be equally able to express it with just its vagueness.<\/p>\n

Vagueness is the main definition of a culture without culture, and a symbol more vague than this flag and suitable for the New Age is difficult to be found. This is the reality concerning the nature and aspiration of the European flag, and not an honor to Virgin Mary or any other reference to Christianity.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u03a4\u1f78 \u03ba\u03b5\u03af\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf \u03b5\u1f36\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03b8\u03ad\u03c3\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c3\u03c4\u1f70 \u1f19\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03ac One must be exceedingly desperate to use its flag as an indication that the European Union is founded on the Christian identity! A vision for the Christian identity existed and remains alive, but the European Union is established rather against this vision than adopting it, and the selection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[9,14,6],"tags":[498,7837,167,7839,7838,223,91],"class_list":["post-4449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-islam","category-politics","tag-europe-west","tag-european-flag","tag-european-union","tag-heitz","tag-kalergi","tag-multiculturalism","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}