The Polish Flag
When you come to Poland you will see the Polish flag displayed very often. Buses and trams, as well as most buildings, have special holders for placement of one to three flags. When it is time to display a flag, the Polish flag is often flanked by the flags for the Vatican and the European Union. The colors of the Polish flag and those of the Vatican and the European Union make for a very colorful and attractive display.
The display of flags on holidays can be described as nothing short of impressive. You see them on buses, trams, apartment building, private and company cars. Anywhere a flag can be planted, people take the opportunity and do it.
The official Polish flag shows two horizontal fields of equal size, with the top one white and the bottom one red. It is distinctive in its simplicity and attractiveness. When properly displayed, the white is on top.
There are more than one form of the flag
Polish Flag
Bandera or Ensign The Polish flag with the white eagle on a red shield, according to protocol, it is meant to be flown by Polish ships at sea and by Polish diplomatic missions. Moreover, the ensign used by the Polish Navy is swallow tailed, a characteristic of the warship ensigns of countries on the Baltic Sea. It is called a "bandera".
In the first act of a Polish government denoting Polish colors, the Polish Sejm passes a resolution on February 7, 1831, adopting a white and red cockade as the official cockade for Poland.
During the times of the Tsars, red and white cockades were illegal. But the colors remained part of the Polish heritage.
On November 11, 1918, a Warsaw University student. heralding the coming independence, raised a big white and red flag on the Radziwiil Palace, then the seat of the German occupational authority, and today, the residence of Poland's President. The following year, the Sejm of the resurgent Polish state adopted the white and red flag as the official design which remains unchanged to this day.
Vatican Flag
Many times in Poland you will see a flag with yellow over white flown with the Polish flag. This flag is related to the Roman Catholic Church. This flag also had the coat of arms of Pope John Paul II. This is a picture of the Vatican flag that the Polish people so proudly fly along with the flag of their country.
