Latvia Flags – Latvian Flag, Bunting & Hand Flags

The Latvian flag: carmine and a narrow white stripe

Latvia’s flag is a dark carmine red field divided by a narrow white horizontal stripe, the bands in the proportion 2:1:2. It has a claim to be one of the oldest flag designs in the world: the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle records a red banner with a white stripe carried by Latgalian troops from Cesis in 1279, and the national awakening of the 1870s took that description up as the colours of the Latvian people. The flag was adopted by the new republic on 15 June 1921, suppressed under Soviet rule from 1940, when displaying it was a criminal offence, and restored on 27 February 1990. The traditional story explains the red as the blood of a wounded Latvian leader who was carried on a white sheet, with the sheet stained on either side of where he lay; the official reading is readiness to defend liberty with one’s blood. The red is a specific shade, Latvian red, darker than the scarlet of Austria or Denmark, and the ratio is 1:2. Our Latvia flag prints that deep carmine and keeps the white stripe at one fifth of the hoist.

18 November, 4 May and the hockey

Proclamation Day on 18 November marks the founding of the republic in 1918 and brings torchlight processions and flags on every building; 4 May is the Day of the Restoration of Independence, the 1990 declaration; 21 August remembers 1991; and the summer solstice, Jāņi on 23 and 24 June, is the other time the country turns out in the open air. Latvians in Britain are a large community, one of the biggest Latvian diasporas anywhere, with Saturday schools, choirs, folk dance groups and 18 November concerts in London, Peterborough, Boston, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and the Dziesmu svētki song festival in Riga draws them home. Sport puts the flag on screen most through ice hockey, where Latvia’s bronze at the 2023 World Championship was celebrated with a public holiday, and basketball, with Kristaps Porziņģis in the NBA and the 3x3 team’s Olympic gold in 2021, as well as bobsleigh, luge, skeleton and beach volleyball. The football team’s run to Euro 2004 remains its high point.

Sizes and the two grades

The Latvia flag is held in 20x12in, 3ft x 2ft, 5ft x 3ft and 8ft x 5ft. Flagtex is a printed woven polyester, the economical grade for a concert, a classroom or a few weeks outside; DuraFlag is the knitted heavyweight with a double-stitched edge that will stay on a pole through a Baltic or a British winter. 5ft x 3ft fits a garden pole, a choir stage or a pub, 3ft x 2ft a window or a wall bracket, 8ft x 5ft a hall backdrop or a large pole, and 20x12in a car or hand pole. Both carry a sewn header with brass eyelets; the DuraFlag can be fitted with clips or rope and toggle.

Latvia bunting

Latvia bunting is 3m or 9m of rectangular polyester pennants printed with the carmine and white, sewn to a tape. 3m dresses a classroom door or a buffet table for 18 November; 9m goes round a hall for a folk-dance evening or a garden for Jāņi. It is fine in rain and lengths join end to end. Plain dark red and white lengths from the bunting section fill out a long run.

Hand flags and table flags

Latvia hand flags on wooden sticks come in 9x6in and 18x12in for processions, hockey screenings and school concerts. The Latvia table flag is a 6x4in flag on a base for a desk, the 9x6in wooden table flag and the 18x12in large wooden table flag suit a reception or a stand, and the sleeved satin table flag is for a formal table. Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland are under world flags.

Latvian flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Latvia Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, 2 grades)from £6.99
• Latvia Bunting (3m or 9m)from £9.98
• Latvia Hand Flagsfrom £5.99
• Latvia Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Latvia Large Wooden Table Flagfrom £3.98