Flag of the Independent State of Samoa
Description
- Red field with a blue rectangle in the upper hoist quadrant containing five white five-pointed stars in the configuration of the Southern Cross
- Adopted on 24 February 1949, with a fifth small star added to the four-star 1948 version
Trivia
- Samoa was the first small Pacific nation to gain independence in the postwar era, on 1 January 1962
- The original 1948 flag had only four stars; the smaller Epsilon Crucis star was added in 1949
- The country was known as Western Samoa until 1997, when it officially shortened its name to simply Samoa
Flag of Samoa
Samoa's flag was adopted on 24 February 1949, when the country was still the Trust Territory of Western Samoa under New Zealand administration. It has been kept unchanged through independence in 1962 and the 1997 constitutional change that shortened the country's name from Western Samoa to Samoa.
The design features a red field with a blue rectangle in the upper hoist quadrant bearing the five white stars of the Southern Cross constellation. Red represents courage, white stands for purity, and the blue canton symbolises freedom. The original 1948 version carried only four stars; a fifth smaller star, Epsilon Crucis, was added in 1949 to match the full Southern Cross and give the flag its distinctive Polynesian identity shared with several other Oceania nations.
json:data
{
"g": "nf,oceania",
"ns": "samoa",
"id": "samoa",
"index": "c/samoa",
"title": "Flag of the Independent State of Samoa",
"ratio": "1:2",
"colors": [
{
"color": "red",
"hex": "#C8102E",
"note": "Traditionally represents courage"
},
{
"color": "blue",
"hex": "#002868",
"note": "The canton representing freedom"
},
{
"color": "white",
"hex": "#FFFFFF",
"note": "The five stars of the Southern Cross representing purity"
}
],
"desc": "- Red field with a blue rectangle in the upper hoist quadrant containing five white five-pointed stars in the configuration of the Southern Cross\n - Adopted on 24 February 1949, with a fifth small star added to the four-star 1948 version\n",
"article": "samoa/flag.md",
"use": {
"as": "national flag",
"since": "1949-02-24"
},
"of": {
"country": "samoa"
},
"countryData": {
"name": "Samoa",
"officialName": "Independent State of Samoa",
"continent": "oceania",
"location": "Polynesia, South Pacific",
"un": "member"
},
"trivia": "- Samoa was the first small Pacific nation to gain independence in the postwar era, on 1 January 1962\n - The original 1948 flag had only four stars; the smaller Epsilon Crucis star was added in 1949\n - The country was known as Western Samoa until 1997, when it officially shortened its name to simply Samoa\n",
"flag": "samoa/flag.svg",
"_name": "Samoa",
"_namespace": "samoa",
"_namePart": ""
}