Panama Flag History and Meaning

Panama got independence from Columbia on November 3, and Flag day is celebrated on the next day, that is the 4th of November every year.

Panama, officially called Republic of Panama, is located on the isthmus joining North and South America. It is the southern-most country of Central America. Its flag is red, blue, and white in color with two stars.

For every country, the flag is a symbol of its values, culture, people, and government. Similarly, the Panamanian flag has an interesting meaning and history as well.

María de la Ossa de Amador made the flag of Panama on November 1, 1903. It was officially adopted by the "ley 48 de 1925."

• The flag is officially described in Law 15 of December 1949 as The Flag of the Republic consists thus of a divided rectangle of four quarters: 

: the upper field close to the pole white with a blue star of five points; the upper field further from the pole, red; the lower field near the pole, blue; and the lower one further from the pole, white with a red star of five points.

• The Panamanian flag is rectangular in shape and is in the ratio 2:3. It is divided into four equal parts.
• The top-left quadrant is white in color, with a blue five-pointed star in between. The bottom-left quadrant is blue in color.
• The top-right quadrant is red in color, and the bottom-right one is white with a five-pointed red star in between.

• The colors red and blue stand for the Liberals and Conservatives, respectively. They were the two rival parties then.
• The white color stands for peace and unity.

• The blue star reflects the unity and honesty of the people, while red reflects the law and authority. Together, they stand for republic.
• The flag reflects and represents the political situation during its inception.

• The first proposal of the flag was made by Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla. It was rejected as he was French, a foreigner.

• It was very similar to the U.S. flag. It had red and yellow strips, representing its connections with Spain and Columbia. It also had two connected yellow suns instead of the stars in the canton, which represented North and South America.
  

• The current flag was first sketched by Manuel Amador Guerrero's son. María de la Ossa de Amador saw it, and made three copies secretly. Then, it was distributed all over the country after independence.