September 26 - Flag Day in Ecuador

nPosted on September 26, 2019

Key Points

nToday is not the anniversary of the adoption of Ecuador’s tricolor flag, as you might imagine, but rather the anniversary of it being reinstated as the flag in 1860.

nLike many other nations, a variety of flags have flown over Ecuador. When the Spanish first conquered the territory, they founded the city of Quito (now the capital) and of course flew the flag of the Spanish Empire. When wars of independence were sweeping through the empire, rebels flew a red flag, but when the nation was first founded, a flag with blue and white stripes and stars was created.

nThe tricolor flag was an altogether other banner. In the early 1800s, a large, powerful nation was formed by joining up what is now Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and parts of Peru, Guyana, and Brazil. It was called Gran Colombia, and it had a flag with yellow, blue, and red stripes, plus a coat of arms.

nEven though Gran Colombia only existed for a bit more than one decade, three nations have kept the basic tricolor flag, with some changes:

nColombia

Notice that Colombia’s modern flag is similar to
Gran Colombia’s flag, but it has a double-wide
top stripe and no coat of arms in the middle.

nEcuador

Ecuador’s flag is pretty identical to Colombia’s,
but it has the nation’s coat of arms in the middle.

nVenezuela

Venezuela’s flag goes back to Gran Colombia’s
same-size stripes but adds stars in the middle
and has its own coat of arms in one corner.

The thing is, during the middle of the 1800s, Ecuador had a period of time, the March Revolution, during which the flag was returned to blue-and-white-with-stars. This was a time of a dispute with Peru over territory, and basically a time of civil war.

nAfter a battle between the two forces, Gabriel Garcia Moreno became the leader of Ecuador and reinstated the Gran Colombia tricolor flag.

nCelebrating flags is one thing – but celebrating Ecuador itself can be so much more: