Greece Flags – Greek Flag, Bunting & Hand Flags

The Greek flag: nine stripes and a cross

The Greece flag is nine equal horizontal stripes, five blue and four white, with a white cross on a blue square in the canton. The cross was the flag of the 1821 War of Independence and the striped version was adopted for the navy in 1822; from then until 1978 Greece used both a plain cross flag on land and the striped flag at sea, and only on 22 December 1978 did the striped design become the single national flag. The nine stripes are usually said to stand for the nine syllables of the revolutionary motto “Eleftheria i Thanatos”, Freedom or Death, and the cross for the Greek Orthodox faith. The blue has no fixed shade in law, so flags range from a light sky blue to a deep navy; ours uses the mid-blue most Greeks recognise from the parliament building. Printed right through the woven polyester, our Greece flag holds the stripes and cross at the correct 2:3 ratio.

The Greek Orthodox Church flag, the black double-headed eagle on gold, is the banner of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the flag flown at Greek churches in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow on feast days and at Easter.

Independence Day, Ochi Day and Greek Easter

Greek Independence Day on 25 March and Ochi Day on 28 October are the two national holidays, marked with parades, church services and school events in the Greek and Greek-Cypriot communities of north London, Birmingham and Manchester. Greek Orthodox Easter, usually a week or more after the Western date, brings the flag out at churches and tavernas, and the summer is Greek-festival season. On the sport side it is Greece in the Euro qualifiers and Nations League, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK in European competition, and Greek basketball. Tavernas, gyros bars and Greek delis fly a flag year-round, and Greek-themed weddings and ouzo nights buy the bunting.

Which size Greek flag?

Hang the 5ft x 3ft Greek flag at a taverna door, on a garden pole or by a church gate. The 3ft x 2ft Greek size fits a smaller pole, a bedroom or a bakery window; the 8ft x 5ft Greek size belongs on a church or community-centre flagpole or a 25 March parade float, and the 20x12in Greek size suits a hand pole or car. Brass eyelets in a sewn header come as standard on every Greece size; with DuraFlag you may have rope-and-toggle or clip fittings instead.

Flagtex or DuraFlag?

For a parade, a name-day party or a taverna that refreshes its flag each season, Flagtex printed woven polyester is the economical pick. When the blue-and-white must fly every day outside a church, a Greek school or a shipping office, take DuraFlag, a heavier-weight knitted cloth with a reinforced header and every hem stitched twice. Order before 2pm and your Greece flag leaves that day; both Hellenic grades are stocked in and dispatched from our Stoke-on-Trent warehouse.

Greece bunting

A taverna ceiling, a Greek night, an Independence Day hall or a school’s Ancient Greece project all take Greece bunting, the nine-stripe flag on every pennant. It comes as rectangles or triangles in runs of 3m, 5m, 9m or 20m, Greek-blue weatherproof polyester sewn along a strong tape. Mix it with Italian and Spanish bunting for a Mediterranean evening.

Hand flags and table flags

Wave Greece hand flags at the 25 March parade, the football or the airport: they are 9x6in or 18x12in on wooden sticks. A taverna till, a travel agent’s desk or a Greek-school classroom gets the 6x4in Greece table flag on its base, and a shipping company’s boardroom the chrome-stand satin table flag. Cyprus flags have their own hub, and Greece’s European neighbours fill the world flags section.

Greek flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Greece Flag, nine stripes and cross, 3x2–8x5ftfrom £6.99
• Greece Buntingfrom £9.98
• Greece Hand Flagsfrom £5.99
• Greek Orthodox Church Flag£7.99
• Greece Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Cyprus Flagssister hub