National Flag Day in Venezuela

The current flag of Venezuela is one of the most important symbols of this country. It is tricolor: yellow, blue and red and consists of three horizontal stripes of equal size and in the middle of the blue stripe, eight white five-pointed stars placed in an arc shape with the convexity upwards. It was first adopted as the national flag of Venezuela in 1811, during the American Confederation of Venezuela, being modified by subsequent governments until reaching the current version.

The eight stars represent the seven provinces that signed the Act of Independence of Venezuela and the Province of Guayana.

Regarding the colors, the first partial description about the meanings of the colors of the national flag is attributed to the president of the Sovereign Congress of Venezuela, Francisco Antonio Zea.

It was President Rómulo Betancourt who, in a decree of July 3, 1963, instituted March 12 of each year as Flag Day, considering "that this day should correspond to the historical moment in which the glorious emblem was hoisted for the first time as a symbol that inflamed with patriotism the hearts of the Liberators, to realize the epic of National Independence...". Years later, the President of the Republic, Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez Frías, on August 3, 2006, decreed this date as Flag Day, in justice to General Francisco de Miranda Rodríguez and the martyrs who arrived 200 years ago at La Vela de Coro to hoist the national tricolor for the first time.