Finland Flags – Finnish Flag, Bunting & Hand Flags

The Finnish flag: the blue cross on white

Finland’s flag, the Siniristilippu or blue-cross flag, is a sea-blue Nordic cross on a white field, with the upright of the cross set towards the hoist in the manner of the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian flags. The colours were suggested by the poet Zachris Topelius in the 1860s, blue for the thousands of lakes and the sky, white for the snow that covers the country for half the year, and after independence from Russia in December 1917 a design by Eero Snellman and Bruno Tuukkanen was adopted on 29 May 1918. The civil flag is the plain cross; the state flag adds the Finnish coat of arms, the crowned lion, at the centre. Finnish flag law is unusually specific, fixing the blue as a particular shade and the proportions at 11:18, and it also lists official flag days through the year. Our Finland flag is the civil version, with the cross printed in the specified blue and the field divided in the correct 5:3:10 and 4:3:4 proportions.

Independence Day, Midsummer and the Lions

Independence Day on 6 December is the most solemn of the Finnish flag days, with the flag flown into the evening and candles in the windows. Midsummer, Juhannus, is the opposite: the flag goes up at six in the evening on Midsummer Eve and stays up all night as the Day of the Finnish Flag. Vappu on 1 May, Mother’s Day, Kalevala Day on 28 February and Swedish Heritage Day on 6 November are also on the official list. In the UK the Finnish Church in Rotherhithe, its Christmas market and the Finnish Institute in London are the community anchors, and Finnish societies in Edinburgh, Manchester and Cambridge mark 6 December with dinners and flags. In sport it is the Leijonat, world ice hockey champions in 2019 and 2022 and Olympic champions in 2022, the Huuhkajat who reached Euro 2020, the string of Finnish Formula 1 and rally drivers, and the Nordic skiing and ski-jumping seasons.

Picking a Finland flag size

Use 5ft x 3ft on a flagpole, a summer-house or a club bar; 3ft x 2ft on a short pole, a desk wall or a stall; 8ft x 5ft on a large fixed pole or as a stage backdrop; and 20x12in on a hand pole or a car. Flagtex is the printed woven polyester for a few weeks outside at a time, and DuraFlag is the knitted heavyweight with double-stitched edges for a flag that stays up through the Finnish, or the British, winter. Both carry a sewn header and brass eyelets; clips and rope-and-toggle are offered on the DuraFlag.

Finland bunting

Finland bunting comes in both rectangle and triangle cut and in 3m, 5m, 9m and 20m lengths, which makes it one of the more flexible national buntings in the range: 3m for a sauna door or a table edge, 20m for a street party or a whole hall. The pennants are weatherproof polyester sewn to a tape, so a Midsummer run can stay out overnight in the rain. Plain blue and white lengths from the bunting range mix in well.

Hand flags and table flags

Finland hand flags on wooden sticks come in 9x6in and 18x12in for hockey crowds, Independence Day receptions and school projects. The Finland table flag is a 6x4in flag on a base for an office or a dinner table, which in Finland is where a flag often goes on a birthday, and the large wooden table flag at 18x12in suits a reception or a sauna shelf. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Åland Islands and the Sami flag are under world flags.

Finnish flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Finland Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, 2 grades)from £6.99
• Finland Bunting (3m to 20m, rectangle or triangle)from £9.98
• Finland Hand Flagsfrom £5.99
• Finland Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Finland Large Wooden Table Flagfrom £3.98