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![[Flag of Costa Rica]](../images/c/cr.gif)
(3:5) 
image by Željko Heimer, 1 June 2001
Official Name: Republic of Costa Rica
(República de Costa Rica)
Capital: San Jose
Flag adopted: 21
October 1964 (Originally adopted 27 November 1906)
Coat of Arms adopted: 21 October 1964
See also:
Flags of bordering countries:
The current pattern was adopted on November 27, 1906 ,
horizontally blue, white, red, white and blue, with proportions
approx. 1:1:2:1:1 and 2:3 proportions, with shield within a white
oval near the hoist in the red stripe. The proportions were
changed from 1:2 to 2:3. Only a minor modification was made on
October 21, 1964, when the six stars of the shield were converted
to seven stars.
Željko Heimer and Jaume Olle , 26 August 1996
From <upersite.incostarica.com>:
"National Flag - Costa Rica's flag was designed and
constituted in the year 1848, under the presidency of Jose Maria
Castro Madriz. Since that year, the flag has always been
three-colored: blue, white and red, distributed among five
horizontal stripes."
Dov Gutterman, 17 November 1998
From <www.costarica.com>:
"Design - The Fist Lady, Paci'fica Ferna'ndez
Oreamuno, designed the flag of Costa Rica in 1848. The flag was
designed after the ideals of the French Revolution - freedom,
equality, and brotherhood - and the colors of the French National
Flag.
Dimensions - The flag of Costa Rica consists of five
horizontal stripes: A red stripe located in the center, between
two white stripes, which are between two blue stripes. The width
of each stripe is 1/6 of the total width of the flag, except the
red stripe, which is 2/6 of the total width.
Meaning - Each color represents important aspects of Costa
Rica: Blue means the sky, opportunities at reach, intellectual
thinking, perseverance to accomplish a goal, infinite, eternity,
and ideals of the religious and spiritual desires. White means
clear thinking, happiness, wisdom, power and beauty of the sky,
the driving force of initiatives to search for new endeavors, and
the peace of Costa Rica. Red means the warmth of Costa Rican
people, their love to live, their blood shed for freedom, and
their generous attitude.
Usage - Flag in Castilian Spanish has two meanings:
"Bandera" and "Pabello'n Nacional." The first
one refers to a national flag. The second one refers to a
national flag with the national shield printed on the center of
the red stripe. Most High Schools and Primary schools, public
offices, government offices, foreign missions and merchant ships
must have the "Pabello'n Nacional." For parties or
civil activities people use the "Bandera.""
Gvido Pētersons, 3 January 2001
The Costa Rica flag with arms is not only forbidden to be used
by private citizens, even is the flag without Coat of Arms! A law
prescribes that private citizens may only show that flag (without
Coat of Arms) on national holidays. This fact is even not
mentioned on the official CR site. In Smith 1980 you find no dot
for civil flag at Costa Rica.
Ralf Stelter, 16 January 2001
Smith gives 3:5 for the state flag and 2:3 for the civil one.
Pedersen gives both flags with 2:3. Dorling-Kindersley Pocket
Book gives only the state flag with 3:5. 'Pavillons nationaux et
marques distinctives' gives both flags with 3:5.
Ivan Sache, 22 January 2001
"Smith gives 3:5 for the state flag and APPROX 2:3 for
the civil ENSIGN". Means: the proportions of the state flag
are specified, while the civil ensign's have not been specified.
And you can really believe: Smith is the better source.
Album des pavillons... old edition gives same proportions as
Smith (but has wrong circle in state flag).
Ralf Stelter, 23 January 2001
It should be noted that there is no civil flag of Costa Rica.
There is indeed a civil ensign, that is unofficially used on land
too, but that is, as far as I know illegal (or, at least, against
the law).
Shipmate Flagchart agrees with 3:5 for both flags. So, I guess
that we can fairly sure say that the state flag is in ration 3:5,
and that most probably the civil ensigns is such too.
The unofficial civil flag may well be used in 2:3 - it's
unofficial anyway. Such flags probably originate from (foreign?)
flagmakers or they are home made (that should be fairly simple).
Željko Heimer, 24 January 2001
I visited Costa Rica in November 2000. The national flag,
without the emblem, was seen at many buildings, especially at
schools, police stations and other official buildings in all
parts of the country I visited. However, it was also seen at many
businesses and offices, many of them presumably privately owned.
Do the words in the law *explicitly forbid citizens to use the
national flag on other days than national holidays?
The most striking flag observation made in Costa Rica was the
peculiar form of flag poles. Most flag poles were in the shape of
inverted fishing hooks.
Jan Oskar Engene, 24 January 2001
The law is of 1964 and if not read carefully one could think
the only flag was the one without arms.
Art 1: The flag is red in the center, with white on either side
and blue on the outsides above and below. The blue and white are
half the size of the red.
Art 2: The flag is used by military unites, war ships, state
ships, merchant ships and by the port authorities.
Art 4 tells that the flag for official use bears the arms and the
article gives the sizes (2 m long 1,2 m high).
Art. 5 - 8 give sizes for military flags and ensigns.
Art. 9 says that merchant ships wear the flag without any arms
and without any inscriptions.
During the text the words bandera and pabellon are mixed without
root.
Further amendments tell about the fees to pay when flags are used
by privates for decoration.
I don't know if something had changed since 1964 .
Ralf Stelter, 24 January 2001
The flag of Costa Rica was adopted in 1848, and since then it
was not changed. This is also the reason why all sources claim
the proportions of approx. 2:3, as these were never fixed (while
the proportions of the state flag and war ensign have been fixed
in 1964 at 3:5). The legend to the flag should read "adopted
1848, confirmed unchanged in 1964". The Coat of Arms was not
put on an oval in 1906, but only in 1934. Before that it was a
circle. In 1964 the number of stars was raised from 5 (not
6) to 7.
The official website explains: "Flag has in Castilian
Spanish two meanings: bandera and pabellon. The first one refers
to a national flag. The second one refers to a National flag with
the national shield....". That is not completely correct.
The meanings are historically different, but in effect the
correct explanation conforms with the actual usage in many
Spanish speaking countries. Bandera is to be translated with
English: flag, German: Fahne, French: Drapeaux. That was a flag
used on land, pabellon is to be translated ensign, Flagge,
pavillon. This is a flag used at sea and later a flag used by
fortresses etc.
From this aspects one can understand, that in 1848, when the new
flag(s) of CR were created, they used a differentiation between
bandera and pabellon. Since then nothing has changed except for
some variations and specifications in the "pabellon".
CR flag laws and decrees seem to jump from one term (bandera) to
the other (pabellon) without special reason.
The official flag site of CR ignores the fact, that the shield is
neither on the red cloth nor off-centered to the mast. Possibly as
this is regulated not in the flag law but in amendments.
Ralf Stelter, 1 Febuary 2001
There is a state flag with Coat of Arms which is only for
government uses, and a civil ensign which is used on privately
owned ships. The latter is without Coat of Arms, and this flag is
used as a civil flag by inhabitants of Costa Rica. Costa Rican
flag law does not allow citizens to use any flag, but this law is
not strictly followed, it seems. I do not know if anything was
changed in the law which dates from 1964, but I do not think so.
The flag with Coat of Arms is strictly for government uses only.
This is the reason why IN Costa Rica the more often used flag is
without Coat of Arms. This is comparable to other states where
are flags with and without Coat of Arms. Also in Germany the flag
with Coat of Arms is not allowed to be used by private citizens
(the fines may be quite high here in Germany, possibly also in
Costa Rica and elsewhere). At the UN the flags flying are usually
the state flags, as far as I know.
Ralf Stelter, 26 March 2001
From Album 2000 [pay00] -
Civil Ensign and unofficial Civil Flag (C--/C-- 3:5) -
Blue-white-red-white-blue 1:1:2:1:1 flag. The colours
specification in Album 2000 provide approximation for the blue to
be quite near what could be called Navy Blue (Pantone 280c), so I
used such a shade.
Željko Heimer, 1 June 2001
In the description of the Costa Rican flag you say that
citizens are not allowed to use the flag. This is not accurate.
Costa Ricans display the flag in numerous occasions. Specially
during National Costa Rica Football Team games. The whole
country becomes red blue and white. People on the street paint
their faces and wear red t-shirts and even wrap the flag around
their head. Quite a sight.
David E. Castillo, 9 November 2005
There is a legislation document issued in 2022, which also defines the
correct color values in Pantone system:https://www.tse.go.cr/pdf/normativa/Ley-10178-Ley_que_regula_uso_Pabellon-Bandera-Escudo-Nac.pdf
Zoltan Horvath, 10 May 2024
The protocol manual for the
London 2012 Olympics
(Flags and Anthems Manual
London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations
for national flag designs. Each
NOC
was sent an image of the flag, including the
PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced
a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may
not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what
the NOC
believed the flag to be.
For Costa Rica: PMS 281 blue, 032 red, 109 yellow, 355 green, 277 blue, 139
brown and black. The vertical flag is simply the horizontal version turned 90
degrees clockwise.
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012
The Flag Manual - Beijing 2008 gives Pantone colors: PMS 109 (yellow), PMS
032 (red), PMS 277 (blue), PMS 281 (blue), PMS 292 (light blue), PMS 355
(green), PMS 440 (brown), and PMS 139 (brown).
The Album des Pavillons
2000 [pay00] gives approximate colors in
Pantone and CMYK systems:
Red: Pantone 186c, CMYK 0-90-80-5
Blue: Pantone 280c, CMYK 100-70-0-10
The Album des Pavillons 2023 already specifies the colors of the flags in
three color systems.
Blue: Pantone Reflex blue c, CMYK 100-91-24-7, RGB
0-20-137
Red: Pantone 485c, CMYK 6-94-96-0, RGB 218-41-28
Vexilla Mundi gives colors in Pantone
system: PMS 280c (blue), PMS White, and PMS 186c (red).
Wikipedia gives the color values as
follows:
Blue: RGB 0-20-137, Hex #001489, CMYK 100-85-00-46, Pantone
Reflex Blue C
Red: RGB 218-41,28, Hex #DA291C, CMYK 0-81-87-15, Pantone 485 C
White: RGB 255-255-255, Hex #FFF FFF, CMYK 0-0-0-0, Pantone Process White
Flag Color Codes gives the following
color values:
Dark Blue: Hex. # 00205B, RGB 0-32-91, CMYK 100-78-0-57,
Pantone 281, RAL 5026
White: Hex. # FFF FFF, RGB 255-255-255, CMYK 0-0-0-0,
Pantone N/A, RAL N/A
Red: Hex. # EF3340, RGB 239-51-64, CMYK 0-90-76-0,
Pantone 032, RAL 3024.
Zoltan Horvath,
10 May 2024
According WMO
page: "At present there is no national or international
system of visual storm warning signal in general use in Costa
Rica."
Jan Mertens, 5 November 2007
image by Ivan Sache, 06 November 2011
"Al Día", 23 August 2008, reports the funeral of a couple murdered in
Moravia. The photo report shows friends of the dead presenting a mourning flag,
white with a black horizontal stripe at the top and at the bottom. The flag
seems to be a "black and white" version of the national flag. How commonly
it is used in Costa Rica in such circumstances is unknown to me. My limited
visual acuity prevented me to decide myself whether some writing was actually
present on the flag.
Ivan Sache, 06 November 2011
That flag looks like it has some kind of writing on it, a dedication to the
deceased perhaps.
Colin Dobson, 07 November 2011
