🇬🇷 The colours of Greece
8 meanings recorded, 14 colours tied to the country and 1 colour city.
Greece’s national colours are blue and white, seen in its flag of nine stripes and a cross. Blue and white are linked to the Greek sky and sea, and the cross stands for Christianity. These colours became official during the 1821 War of Independence, replacing earlier symbols.
Where no official value is given, the swatch shows the colour family, not the exact shade.
- The Greek flag has nine blue and white stripes and a white cross on blue.
- Blue and white became official in 1822 during the War of Independence.
- The cross on the flag stands for Christianity.
- Blue and white are linked to the sky and sea of Greece.
- The exact shade of blue is not fixed by law.
The colours of the flag of Greece
The Greek flag features nine horizontal stripes alternating blue and white, with a blue square in the top left corner bearing a white cross. The cross officially stands for Christianity. While the stripes do not have an official meaning, many people associate them with the phrase 'Freedom or Death', with blue and white stripes representing its syllables. Blue and white are also said to symbolise the Greek sky and sea, and the nine stripes are sometimes linked to the country's nine regions. The exact shade of blue is not fixed by law and has varied over time.
National colours of Greece
Blue and white are used beyond the flag, such as in the coat of arms, which shows a white cross on a blue shield. Laurel branches around the shield are usually blue, though gold is used by the president and military. Ribbons in these colours appear on national honours and decorations. In sport, blue and white ribbons were tied to pigeons released at the 1896 Olympics. Some houses in Greece are painted blue and white, a tradition that became a quiet act of resistance during occupation.
How the colours were chosen of Greece
Blue and white have been used by Greeks for centuries, appearing in uprisings before the 1821 revolution. The First National Assembly in 1822 made them official, replacing earlier colours like black and those used by revolutionary groups. The flag’s design may have roots in the Kallergis family’s coat of arms, itself linked to Byzantine traditions. Over time, the flag’s details changed with different rulers, sometimes adding crowns or coats of arms, but blue and white remained central. The flag became a symbol of resistance during foreign occupation in the 20th century.
Official shades and rules of Greece
Greek law defines the flag’s colours as blue and white but does not specify the exact shade of blue, which is called 'cyan' in legal texts. The flag has nine horizontal stripes and a white cross on a blue canton. The proportions and placement of the cross have been set by decree, but the blue has ranged from light to dark in practice.
The facts in this overview come from the Wikipedia article "National colours and symbols of Greece", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, together with "Flag of Greece". Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
What colours mean in Greece
Customs vary by region, faith and family; these are the meanings most often recorded.
Eggs are dyed red on the Thursday before Easter to stand for the blood of Christ. After the midnight service families crack them against each other.
Sacred and holyFestival and celebrationJoySource: Easter eggOn 1 March children tie on a martis, a bracelet of twisted red and white thread. It is worn until the end of the month and is said to protect the skin from the spring sun.
Protection and healingSource: MartenitsaGreen is the colour of PASOK, the socialist party that led many governments after 1981. Its symbol is a green rising sun.
Politics and protestSource: PASOKThe flag is blue and white, with nine stripes and a white cross. The colours are usually read as the sea and sky and the white of the waves and clouds.
Politics and protestNature and renewalPrideSource: Flag of GreeceA blue glass eye, the mati, is worn on a chain or hung in homes and cars against the evil eye. Blue is held to be the colour that turns the harm back.
Protection and healingSource: Evil eyeA child born to a reigning Byzantine emperor was called porphyrogennetos, born in the purple. The birth took place in a palace room lined with purple stone.
Royalty and powerAweSource: Born in the purpleClose family wear black for at least forty days after a death, and often for a year. In villages many widows keep to black for the rest of their lives.
Mourning and deathGriefSource: MourningOrthodox icons and church mosaics set their figures against a ground of gold. It stands for the light of heaven, not for any earthly place.
Sacred and holyAweSource: IconColour and feeling in Greece
The word melancholy is Greek for black bile, the body fluid that ancient Greek medicine blamed for lasting sadness.
A blue glass bead painted as an eye, the nazar, is hung in homes, cars and on children's clothes to turn harm away.
A blue glass eye, the nazar or mati, is worn and hung in homes to deflect the harm that an envious look is believed to cause.
At the 2004 Athens Olympics, fighters assigned red kit won slightly more bouts than those in blue, a finding later studies have questioned.
Greek medicine tied moods to body fluids, including yellow bile and black bile. English still calls a sickly look 'bilious' and a sour outlook 'jaundiced'.
Colours tied to Greece
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Turquoise: Reno Chris (original), Ra'ike (derivative work), Public domain, source
- Oia Gr: Meersan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source