Italian flag: a story to tell to children

Do you know the history of the Italian flag? The meaning of the colors? When is the coat of arms there? Let’s find out together and tell our children about it

Discovering the Italian flag!

The Italian tricolor: green, white, red. Soon it will be April 25th, Liberation Day. Let’s jump forward in time: June 2nd, Republic Day. How many opportunities to remember the history of our flag! Do you know it? Do you know why those three colors were chosen? Why did a coat of arms appear on our flag at a certain point? When was our flag adopted and by whom? Let’s make a quick one summary per children with the main curiosities about our tricolor flag.

History: we start with Napoleon

The brief history of our tricolor? Here she is! Our green red and white flag it is considered a variant of the flag of the French Revolution. Our tricolor in fact belongs to a vast family of eighteenth and nineteenth century flags, all of revolutionary-constitutional origin.

As reported in the Treccani encyclopedia, in 1796 it was chosen by Napoleon for the Lombard and Italian legions and then extended the following year to the Cispadane and Cisalpine Republics. Precisely in 1796 Napoleon had crossed the Alps and defeated the army of the Austrian Empire and that of the pre-unification states of the centre-north. The Italian tricolor as the national flag was born in Reggio Emilia on 7 January 1797. On that occasion the Parliament of the Cispadane Republic, on the proposal of the deputy Giuseppe Compagnoni, decreed “that the Cispadane Standard or Flag of Three Colors Green, White and Red be made universal, and that these three Colors are also used in the Cispadane Cockade, which must be carried by everyone.”

In 1801 the tricolor flag passed to the Italian Republic and from 1805 to 1814 to the Italian Kingdom. Let’s jump forward 50 years: in 1848-49, it waved in all the Italian states in which constitutional governments arose or were desired.

The coat of arms with the Savoy shield

In 1848 Carlo Alberto proclaimed the national tricolor flag and had the blue-bordered shield of Savoy inserted into it. That of the Sardinian State remained and in 1861, that of the Kingdom of Italy.

In 1946, with the referendum for the choice between monarchy and republic, the shield of Savoy disappeared from the flag. And it remained as we know it today, with the three colors: green, white and red.

“The flag of the republic is the Italian tricolour: green, white and red, with vertical bands of equal size”. Meuccio Ruini, president of the Commission for the Constitution in 1947

A dedicated law

Do you know that there is a law dedicated to our flag and its display? And the Law 22/1998. Here’s what it says in brief:

The flag of the Italian Republic and that of the European Union are displayed outside the buildings where the public law bodies indicated below have their headquarters, for the time in which they exercise their respective functions and activities:
a) the constitutional bodies and bodies of constitutional importance, and in any case the seat of the Government when the Council of Ministers is meeting;
b) i Ministeri?
c) the regional, provincial and municipal councils, during their meetings;
d) judicial offices;
e) state schools and universities.

The flag of the Italian Republic and that of the European Union are also displayed
outside the polling stations during consultations and outside the offices of representation
Italian diplomats and consulates abroad.

The regulation and the regional rules referred to in paragraph 2 of article 1 may, within the limits of their respective competences, dictate additional regulations regarding the methods of use and display of the flag of the Italian Republic and that of the European Union as well as banners , coats of arms and banners, also with reference to public law bodies not included in the list referred to in paragraph 1 of this article

The meaning of colors

What do the three colors of our flag mean: green, white and red? It’s not like they had any specific meaning to begin with. A symbolic value was then added: green is the green of hope and nature, white that of faith, purity and peace, red that of love, but also of blood.

Flags and activities for children

We offer you some games to help children learn the flags of the world.

Memory of the flags

Prepare cards with images of the flags of different countries of the world (prepare two pairs of each) and distribute them face down on a table. The children will have to turn the cards over trying to find the corresponding pairs of flags. Whoever makes the most pairs wins! Clearly an extra point for those who remember which country the flag they won corresponds to.

Guess the flag… blind man’s buff!

Print or draw some world flags on some paper and hang them in various parts of the room. Blindfold the children one at a time and make them spin around to confuse them. Then, have them choose a flag and remove the blindfold. Whoever guesses the most flags wins!

Print and color the Italian flag

A white flag to print and customize.

Fonte: shutterstock

Learn the colors of the flags of the world

With this cute world map, discover and learn the colors of the various flags of the world. They are a lot!

Fonte: shutterstock

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