Ikurriña
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The Ikurriña, a flag designed by the founders of the Basque Nationalist Party EAJ-PNV Luis and Sabino Arana, is regarded as the national symbol of Euskal Herria, or the Basque Country. The Ikurriña is also the flag of the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV).
The flag was designed in 1894 to represent the province of Biscay (Vizcaya in Spanish, Bizkaia in Basque) in a set of one flag for each of the seven Basque provinces and one for the whole country. However, since PNV activity was scarce outside of Biscay, only the Biscayne flag was publicly recognized. It was adopted as the flag of the whole autonomous Spanish community of the Basque Country in 1933 and 1980. It is now also commonly used in the French Basque Country, Iparralde.
The Ikurriña has a white cross and a green saltire across a red background. The green St Andrew's cross might represent the Oak of Guernica, a symbol of the old laws of Bizkaia, or Fueros. The white cross represents Catholicism and was also found behind the Oak in the Heraldic arms of Bizkaia, and the red background represents the Basque people (originally, the Biscaynes). Thus, red, white and green have become the national Basque colors. The red background and vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines show some similarity to the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Navarre. Some sources say that the design was inspired by that of the British Union Jack, due to contact with British sailors in the port city of Bilbao.
Name
The name is a neologism by the Aranas from ikur ("mark, sign", compare to Catalan senyera). It was intended to have the generic meaning of "flag" but ended with this specific meaning. Therefore, the current standard Basque word for "flag" is the Hispanism bandera. A similar process happened with other Basque nationalist neologisms, like lehendakari and ertzaintza, coined originally as generic terms, but then applied almost exclusively to the Basque President and the Basque Police. The original Biscayne spelling of the Aranas was ikuŕiñ (the final -a is the Basque definite article). The modern standard spelling is ikurrin.
See also
- The arrano beltza ("black eagle") is another flag often displayed by Basque leftist nationalists besides Ikurriña.
- The modern flag of Saint Pierre et Miquelon (French North America) recognizes its Basque heritage by including an ikurriña.
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