Flag of Hawaii

Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox flag

The Flag of Hawaii (Template:Langx), also known as the Hawaiian flagTemplate:Efn, is the official flag of the U.S. state of Hawaii. It consists of a field of eight horizontal stripes, in the sequence of white, red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red, with a British Union Jack depicted as a canton in the upper-left corner. The flag has been in use since 1845.

History

Before 1816

Captain George Vancouver of the British Royal Navy visited the Hawaiian Islands on three occasions during his 1791 to 1795 expedition. At this time, the Hawaiian Islands were divided among several warring chiefdoms. In February 1794, while at anchorage in Kealakekua Bay off the Hawaiʻi island, Vancouver reached a diplomatic agreement with the king (or aliʻi) of that island, Kamehameha, who would later unite all the Hawaiian islands and become the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Vancouver believed that the agreement reached meant Hawaiʻi island was being ceded to Great Britain, but historians have argued that the Hawaiians saw the agreement as establishing a protectorate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After the proceedings on Vancouver's vessel, a British flag was presented, taken ashore and raised. The flag was either a British Union Jack,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="HealyOrenski2016">Template:Cite book</ref> or a Red Ensign as used by the Royal Navy, which features a Union Jack in the canton.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn In 1801, the British Union Jack added a Saint Patrick's Cross when Ireland joined with Great Britain in a political union. Both pre- and post-1801 versions of the Red Ensign served as the unofficial flag of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi until 1816.<ref name="HealyOrenski2016" />

There is an unverified anecdote that, during the War of 1812 (fought between the United Kingdom and the United States from 1812 to 1815), Kamehameha became aware of the nationalist meaning of flags. To avoid offending either side, he designed a new flag for his kingdom which combined elements of both the British Union Jack and the flag of the United States.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="Golovnin">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

Red Ensign of Great Britain (1707–1800)
Flag of the United States in 1815 with 15 stars and stripes

1816–1845

In April 1816, Kamehameha purchased a brig from Scottish Captain Alexander Adams, and arranged for Adams to take command of the ship, which was renamed Template:Lang after the wife of Kamehameha. As part of the transfer ceremony, Adams wrote that he was "honored to take command under the Flag of His Majesty"<ref name="The Friend"/> though he does not describe the flag. The next year, in March 1817, the Template:Lang became the first Hawaiian vessel to sail to a foreign port (Canton, China) under a "distinct" Hawaiian flag.<ref name="Resources1985">Template:Cite book</ref> In one source, this is described as: "A St. George and St. Andrews Cross in the corner filled in with blue, with field consisting of red and white stripes" which virtually matches the ensign of the East India Company<ref name="The Friend" /> though another source describes "red, white and blue stripes added to a Union Jack".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Russian navigator Vasily Golovnin, based on a visit to Oʻahu in 1818, describes seeing a "national flag" which "consists of seven stripes: red, white, blue, red, white, blue and red, with the English Union Jack in the corner".<ref name="Golovnin" />Template:Rp

Until 1845, visitors to the Hawaiian Islands reported various versions of the flag with different numbers of stripes and colors.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="The Friend">Template:Cite book</ref>

1845–Present

In 1843, either as an inadvertent mistake, or as a symbolic "reversal" gesture in the wake of the Paulet affair - a five-month-long, unofficial occupation of Hawaii by a British naval officer - the flag design was specified to have eight stripes: a white stripe on top followed by the sequence red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red. This new flag was officially unfurled on May 25, 1845, at the opening of the legislative council and remains the same design as used today.<ref name="quaife"> Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":4" /> Template:Clr

Design

The canton of the flag of Hawaii contains the Union Flag of the United Kingdom, prominent over the top quarter closest to the flag mast. The field of the flag is composed of eight horizontal stripes, symbolizing the eight major islands (Hawaiʻi, Maui, Kahoʻolawe, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, and Niʻihau). The color of the stripes, from the top down, follows the sequence: white, red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red. The colors "red", "blue", and "white" are not explicitly defined.<ref name="Hawaii State Legislature" />

Despite resembling the flags of British Overseas Territories, where the canton uses the full upper-left quadrant, the canton of the Hawaiian flag is proportioned in the ratio 4:7. This is a consequence of the flag having a 1:2 overall proportion while the description of the canton in Hawaiian law is given as: "half the hoist (width) in breadth and 7-16 the fly in length".<ref name="Hawaii State Legislature" />

The use of the Union Jack is a legacy of the British Royal Navy's historical relations with the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and, in particular, the pro-British sentiment of its first ruler, King Kamehameha I. Despite the design including the British Union Jack, the Hawaiian Kingdom was never a colony of the British Empire. The flag was retained after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, after U.S. annexation in 1898, and after statehood in 1959.

The flag's eight stripes are inspired by the flag of the United States. The stripes represent the main islands of the Hawaiian archipelago.<ref name=":3" />

The flag of Hawaii flying in Haleakalā National Park.
Hawaiian quilt from Waimea, created before 1918.
The Hawaii state flag as depicted in a 1976 postage stamp series.

In 2001, a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) placed Hawaii's flag 11th in design quality, out of the 72 U.S. and Canadian provincial, state, and territorial flags ranked.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Lang

In 1990, Governor of Hawaii John Waiheʻe proclaimed July 31 to be Template:Lang, the Hawaiian Flag Day. It has been celebrated each year since then.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is the same date as Template:Lang, Sovereignty Restoration Day, a holiday of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi that is celebrated by proponents of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

Chronology

Date	Flag	Image
1793–1800	British Red Ensign<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1801–1816	British Red Ensign following the Acts of Union with Ireland
1816–1845	Early version of the present flag (1:2 canton)
February 1843 – July 1843	Union Flag (during the Paulet Affair)
1845–present	The current Hawaiian flag was introduced in 1845 (4:7 canton, white stripe at the top). This design was retained through the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the Republic of Hawaii, the annexation of Hawaii by the United States, and finally the admission of Hawaii as a US state

Other flags

Flag of the Governor

Template:See also The flag used by the governor of Hawaii is a red and blue bicolor. In the middle of the eight white stars appears the name of the state in all capital letters. During the time Hawaii was a United States territory, the letters in the middle of the flag were "TH", which stood for "Territory of Hawaii".<ref name="gov">Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Lang flag

The Template:Lang ('true people' in the Hawaiian language) design is purported by some to be the original flag of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, though this claim is unverified and widely disputed.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was introduced to the public by Gene Simeona in 2001.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It has nine alternating stripes of green, red, and yellow defaced with a green shield with a Template:Lang (strip of kapa bark cloth insignia flown atop the double-hulled canoe of the chief) crossed by two paddles.

Gene Simeona claims to have unearthed the Kānaka Maoli flag in 1999. Simeona said he encountered a descendant of Lord George Paulet who told him about an earlier flag. Simeona claims to have found evidence of the Template:Lang flag in the state archives, though any sources he may have used have not been identified.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> Subsequent efforts to verify Simeona's claim have been unsuccessful.<ref name=":1" /> Critics of the claim have pointed to evidence of the widely accepted Hawaiian flag being in existence before the Kānaka Maoli flag.<ref name=":1" />

Louis "Buzzy" Agard had proposed a Hawaiian flag design in 1993 which featured nine alternating stripes and the same charge as on the Template:Lang flag,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> leading many to believe it is where Simeona drew his inspiration.Template:Citation needed

Despite the lack of verification about its historic use, the design is popular among those who prefer its lack of apparent colonial imagery.<ref name=":0" /> Template:Clear

Gallery

Personal Standard of King Kalākaua
Personal Standard of Princess Kaʻiulani
Naval Ensign of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, with the only known use of this flag being on the Kaimiloa
Naval Jack of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, flown on the bowsprit of the Kaimiloa
Flag of the Kuhina Nui in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi
Proposed 49 star American flag from 1941<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The inverted Hawaiian flag represents the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in distress and has served as the main symbol of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement
Flag of the Hawaiian people used in Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Flag of the Nation of Hawaiʻi movement
Digital reconstruction of the flag carried by Hawaii's National Guard, 1916<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>