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Location:
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Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, north of Venezuela
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Area:
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193 km² 74.5 sq mi
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Border Countries:
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None
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Capital City:
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Oranjestad
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Main Cities:
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Oranjestad, Noord, Santa Cruz, Barcadera, Sabaneta
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Population:
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102,695
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Currency:
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Aruban Florin (AWG)
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Languages:
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Dutch (official), Papiamento (a Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English dialect), English (widely spoken), Spanish
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Religions:
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Roman Catholic 82%, Protestant 8%, Hindu, Muslim, Confucian, Jewish
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The flag of Aruba: Aruba's national flag was adopted on March 18, 1976. The design consists of a field of light blue (called "Larkspur" or "U.N. blue"), two narrow parallel horizontal yellow ("Bunting Yellow") stripes in the bottom half, and a four-pointed white-fimbriated red ("Union Jack red") star in the canton.
The design elements have multiple symbolic meanings:
• The blue field represents the sky, the sea, peace, hope, Aruba's future and its ties to the past.
• The two narrow stripes "suggest the movement toward status aparte". One represents "the flow of tourists to sun-drenched Aruba, enriching the island as well as vacationers", the other "industry, all the minerals (gold and phosphates in the past, petroleum in the early 20th century)".[1] In addition to sun, gold, and abundance, the yellow is also said to represent wanglo flowers.
• The star has particularly complex symbolism.
• It is vexillologically unusual in having four points, representing the four cardinal directions. These refer in turn to the many countries of origin of the people of Aruba. They also represent the four main languages of Aruba: Papiamento, Spanish, English, and Dutch.
• The star also represents the island itself: a land of often red soil bordered by white beaches in a blue sea.
• The red also represents blood shed by Arubans during war, past Indian inhabitants, patriotic love, and Brazil wood.
• The white also represents purity and honesty.
March 18 is a public holiday in Aruba, known as Flag Day.
Aruba is a 32 km long island of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea, 27 km north of the Paraguaná Peninsula, Falcón State, Venezuela, and it forms a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Unlike much of the Caribbean region, it has a dry climate and an arid, cactus-strewn landscape. This climate has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny weather. It has a land area of 193 km².
One of the Lesser Antilles, specifically in the Leeward Antilles island arc, Aruba is a generally flat, riverless island renowned for its white sand beaches. Most of these are located on the western and southern coasts of the island, which are relatively sheltered from fierce ocean currents. The northern and eastern coasts, lacking this protection, are considerably more battered by the sea and have been left largely untouched by humans. The interior of the island features some rolling hills, the better two of which are called Hooiberg at 165 metres (541 ft) and Mount Jamanota, which is the highest on the island, at 188 metres (617 ft) above sea level. Oranjestad, the capital, is located at 12°19'N 70°1'W.
As a separate member state of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the island/state has no administrative subdivisions. On the east are Curaçao and Bonaire, two island territories which form the southwest part of the Netherlands Antilles; Aruba and these two Netherlands Antilles islands are also known as the ABC islands.
The local climate is a pleasant tropical marine climate. Little seasonal temperature variation exists, which helps Aruba to attract tourists all year round. Temperatures are almost constant at about 28 °C (82 °F), moderated by constant trade winds from the Atlantic Ocean. Yearly precipitation barely reaches 500 mm (20 in), most of it falling in late autumn.
Discovered and claimed for Spain in 1499, Aruba was conquered by the Dutch in 1636. The island's economy has been dominated by three main industries: gold mining, petroleum, and tourism.
Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles on January 1, 1986, and became a separate, self-governing member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Movement toward full independence by 1996 was halted at Aruba's request in 1990.
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The flag is a piece of cloth, often flown from a pole or mast, generally used for signalling or identification. The design of a flag displayed in another form is also referred to as a flag. The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields, and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification, especially in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used).
National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are used in messaging or advertising, or for decorative purposes, though at this less formal end the distinction between a flag and a simple cloth banner is blurred. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
Although flag-like symbols have been used by ancient cultures for thousands of years, the origin of flags in the modern sense is a matter of dispute. Some believe flags originated in China, while others hold that the Roman Empire's vexillum was the first true flag. Originally, the standards of the Roman legions were not flags, but symbols like the eagle of Augustus Caesar's Xth legion; this eagle would be placed on a staff for the standard-bearer to hold up during battle. But a military unit from Scythia had for a standard a dragon with a flexible tail which would move in the wind; the legions copied this; eventually all the legions had flexible standards — our modern-day flag.
During the Middle Ages, flags were used mainly during battles to identify individual leaders: in Europe the knights, in Japan the samurai, and in China the generals under the imperial army.
From the time of Christopher Columbus onwards, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals; see International maritime signal flags.
Beginning in the 17th century, European knights were replaced by centralized armies, and flags became the means to identify not just nationalities but also individual military units. Flags became much more elaborate, and were seen as objects to be captured or defended. Eventually these flags posed too much danger to those carrying them, and by World War I these were withdrawn from the battlefields, and have since been used only at ceremonial occasions.
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