Have you ever wondered where the geographical centre of Europe is? Close your eyes and imagine you have the map of Europe in front of you and a huge compass. Now, place your compass close to village of Dilove, fifteen kilometres southwest of Rakhiv, in Ukraine and draw a circle. Does your circle include the European continent?

I am very curious if this is true or not. And I am saying this because other countries are reclaiming they host the continent’s centre, such as Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia.

The Story of Ukrainian Flag

Do you still have your eyes closed? Oh, no, please open them. We need our eyes open to see this picture. Here we can see Horea, almost 8 years old, in the centre of Europe, Ukraine and his mum. What do you think his mimic express?

I am still wondering. Is the centre of our continent really there? Hmmm…But until we can check for real using a compass and a map, we can have a look at Ukrainian flag together and learn more about this country. Have a look at the picture. What can we notice?

The Story of Ukrainian Flag

The flag has two colours: blue and yellow. These colours are arranged in two congruent rectangles. Or we can say it in a different way, the same way as it is stipulated in the Constitution of Ukraine, Article 20: the flag of Ukraine is a banner of two equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow. Is this clear for you or I have confused you already?

Now, I am wondering why having these colours on the flag? Are these colours picked randomly or they have a special meaning? Is blue any kind of blue or a special blue? Is yellow any kind of yellow or a special yellow?

Yes, you are right. They have a special meaning and these are special colours.

Why blue? Not any kind of blue, azure blue. When you are seeing blue what are you thinking of? Yes, the sky. So the blue represents the wide blue sky, streams, and mountains of Ukraine. What about yellow? Yep, not any kind of yellow, but golden yellow… Any ideas what the yellow colour might represent? Golden yellow symbolizes the golden wheat fields and the richness of the earth that characterize this country.

So, we can say that the Ukrainian flag represents the azure blue sky above the golden yellow field of wheat. Can you picture this into your mind? How does it look? You may want to draw a painting with the landscape you have designed with your imagination.

This flag as we can see it now is not very old. It has been adopted on 1992, so it has around 20 years old. But the use of these colours is going back in the history with more than 170 years when the Ukrainian people wanted to gain their independence from Austria-Hungary dominance. But soon after this struggle, Soviet Russia conquered Ukraine and the flag was prohibited until 1991 when Ukraine was declared independent. What a joy! People were dancing and singing on the streets. Why do you think they were so happy?

Isn’t that amazing how much the flag of a country can tell us about its history, its people, and its values and believes? It is fascinating indeed. Now go and pick up a paper, a ruler, a pencil, and two coloured pencils: azure blue and golden yellow. YAY! You are going to draw the Ukrainian flag.

We can do this together now or later on, when you are ready for this activity. If you feel like do it now, let’s do it.

Sources:

  1. The Lonely Planet, Geographical Centre of Europe - Monument in Rakhiv (https://www.lonelyplanet.com/ukraine/the-carpathians/rakhiv/attractions/geographical-centre-of-europe/a/poi-sig/1383331/360939)
  2. Wikipedia, Flag of Ukraine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ukraine)
  3. World Atlas, Flags, Symbols & Currency of Ukraine (https://www.worldatlas.com/flags/ukraine)

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