The Republic of Moldova celebrates the National Flag Day on April 27. The national emblem is celebrated today too. State heraldist Silviu Tabac said the choosing of the national emblem was the most dramatic exercise that Moldova ever witnessed. The vice director of the National Museum of Ethnography and History Varvara Buzila considers the people started to identify themselves more with the national symbols – the flag and the emblem, IPN reports.
Doctor of History Silviu Tabac related that an open contest was held to choose the national emblem. It was open to the whole media, the scientific community and civil society that was then in the process of being formed. The discussions about the way in which the future national emblem should look were controversial: professional historians and over 100 plastic artists become involved in the effort to implement this ‘national project’. There were selected 18 or 19 designs that were subject to public debates.
According to the state heraldist, two designs reached the final: a more Moldovan one that contained the head of an aurochs, as another dozens of designs, signed by Andrei Mudrea, and a project signed by Gheorghe Vrabie. In his emblem design, Gheorghe Vrabie added the Romanian Aquila besides the head of aurochs, changing thus the symbolism of the Moldovan emblem.
Silviu Tabac said the two designs were discussed at public debates and then in Parliament. “Thus, the design made by Gheroghe Vrabie and Maria Dogaru was adopted on November 3, 1990 and was also placed on the national flag, which was adopted on April 27, 1990 and didn’t have an emblem on it until November,” he stated.
Ethnographer Varvara Buzila remembered that a long time ago the tricolor was hidden and was shown to the people by clothing elements – by a button on the national costume or in the colors of an embroidered peasant blouse. The people now identify themselves more with the flag of the Republic of Moldova. Today the flag can be seen not only on homes’ balconies, but also in the fields, where the people who returned home from abroad to cultivate the vineyards raise the flag. This shows that the people fully recognize the national symbols.
The National Flag Day was instituted by Parliament on April 23, 2010. The tricolor was officially designated as the state flag on April 27, 1990 by the members of the first legislative body.
The Constitution of the Republic of Moldova says that the tricolor is the national flag. Its colors come vertically down the lance: blue, yellow and red. In the center, on the yellow strip, there is the national emblem that represents a red and blue shield with the head of an aurochs in the middle, who has a star with eight points above his head. The aurochs head has a five-petal rose on its right and a contoured crescent on the left. All the elements are yellow in color. The shield is placed on the chest of a natural Aquila that has a golden cross in its beak, a green olive branch in its right claw and a golden scepter in its left claw.
