🇻🇳 The colours of Vietnam
7 meanings recorded, 6 colours tied to the country and 2 colour cities.
Vietnam’s flag features a red field with a central yellow star. Red stands for revolution, struggle, and the blood shed for independence, while the yellow star symbolises the unity of five social classes—intellectuals, farmers, workers, entrepreneurs, and soldiers—and is also linked to the Vietnamese people’s self-image.
Where no official value is given, the swatch shows the colour family, not the exact shade.
- Red symbolises revolution and bloodshed for independence.
- The yellow star represents five main social classes.
- Yellow was a royal colour in Vietnam for over 2,000 years.
- There is no official colour code for the flag’s shades.
- The flag’s design was finalised in 1955 with a straighter star.
The colours of the flag of Vietnam
The Vietnamese flag is a rectangle with a red background and a bright yellow five-pointed star in the centre. Red is officially described as representing revolution and the blood sacrificed for the country’s independence. The yellow star stands for the unity of five key social groups: intellectuals, farmers, workers, entrepreneurs, and soldiers. The association of red with revolution and yellow with the people’s skin tone or ethnicity is widely accepted, though some interpretations focus more on unity and tradition. These meanings are both official and commonly understood.
National colours of Vietnam
Red and yellow (or gold) are Vietnam’s historical national colours. Yellow has been used for over 2,000 years, often as a royal or dynastic colour, while red has been linked to revolution and struggle in modern times. These colours appear in various flags and standards throughout Vietnamese history, but today they are most visible in the national flag.
How the colours were chosen of Vietnam
The flag’s design dates to 1940, first appearing in an anti-colonial uprising. It was adopted by the Viet Minh in 1941 and became the national flag after independence was declared in 1945. The star’s points were made straighter in 1955. Historically, yellow and red have appeared in royal and dynastic symbols, and different regimes in Vietnam have used variations of these colours. The current flag was adopted for the unified country in 1976.
Official shades and rules of Vietnam
Vietnam’s constitution specifies the flag’s proportions and layout: a rectangle with width two-thirds its length, a red background, and a central yellow star. There is no official colour code or standardised shade for the red or yellow, so variations exist in practice. The main requirement is the red field with a centred yellow star.
The facts in this overview come from the Wikipedia article "Flag of Vietnam", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. 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 Vietnam
Customs vary by region, faith and family; these are the meanings most often recorded.
At Tet, the lunar New Year, children and elders are given lucky money in red envelopes, and homes are hung with red banners. Brides often marry in a red ao dai.
Luck and prosperityFestival and celebrationJoySource: TếtThe flag is red with a yellow star. Red stands for revolution and bloodshed, and the five points of the star for workers, peasants, soldiers, intellectuals and traders.
Politics and protestPrideSource: Flag of VietnamYellow was the colour of the emperors. The Nguyen rulers at Hue wore yellow robes, and yellow was the main colour of their flags.
Royalty and powerSource: Nguyễn dynastyIn the south, families bring home branches of yellow apricot blossom, hoa mai, for Tet. A tree that flowers on New Year's morning is taken as a good sign.
Festival and celebrationLuck and prosperityOptimismSource: Ochna integerrimaPurple is tied to the old capital, Hue, where schoolgirls and women were known for violet ao dai. In songs and poems it is the colour of faithful, wistful love.
Love and desireNostalgiaSource: HuếIn the north, pink peach blossom is the flower of Tet. Families in Hanoi buy a flowering branch or small tree for the house before the holiday.
Festival and celebrationLuck and prosperityJoySource: TếtAt a funeral the children and grandchildren of the dead wear white headbands and loose white clothes of rough cloth.
Mourning and deathGriefSource: Mourning
Colours tied to Vietnam
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Red
A primary colour seen in light, pigment, and tradition worldwideBasic colour · 🇺🇸 United States +5
Green
Celadon青瓷
A jade-green ceramic glaze prized in East Asian pottery for centuriesNamed shade · 🇨🇳 China +4
Red
Lacलाक्षा
A red resin secreted by insects and used as dye, varnish and shellacColour named from nature · 🇮🇳 India +5
Blue
Butterfly pea blue
A vivid blue from the butterfly pea flower, used in Asian food and drinkColour named from nature · 🇮🇩 Indonesia +5
Blue
Pala indigo
A tree from India whose leaves yield a blue dye like indigoColour named from nature · 🇮🇳 India +4
#00416A
Indigo dye
A greenish dark blue made from tropical indigo plants and woadDye · 🇮🇳 India +1
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Lac: Jeffrey W. Lotz, CC BY 3.0, source
- Celadon: Vassil, Public domain, source
- Red: Sander van der Wel, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Butterfly pea blue: Suyash Dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Pala indigo: J.M.Garg, CC BY 3.0, source
- Hue Vn: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, source