The National Flag

NATIONAL SYMBOLS

Activity 1. Match the English words with their Russian/Ukrainian equivalents:

1. anthem a. вишивати

2. to confirm b. стяги, прапори

3. stripes c. тризуб

4. banners d. сміливість, хоробрість

5. to embroider e. свобода

6. to sew f. віршований текст

7. trident g. додати

8. seal h. гімн

9. lyrics i. справедливість

10. courage j. символізувати

11. justice k. приєднуватися

12. liberty l. печатка

13. to join m. герб

14. to add n. смуги

15. to stand for o. схвалювати

16. coat of arms p. Шити

Activity 2. Complete the following sentences using the facts that you known or try to guess or predict. Check yourself by reading the texts given below:

1. The blue stripe on the Flag of Ukraine means …

2. The yellow stripe on the Ukrainian Flag symbolized …

3. The National emblem of Ukraine is …

4. The National anthem of Ukraine was written in …

The national symbols of Ukraine

The National Flag

The Ukrainian Constitutional states that National symbols of the country are the National Emblem and the National Anthem. They were adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in 1992. The Ukrainian flags consist of two horizontal stripes of equal width. The top is blue and the bottom is yellow. There are the colours of the sky, the mountains, the rivers and the golden fields of our beautiful country. Blue and yellow (or gold) were symbols of Kyivan Rus long before the introduction of Christianity. These colours can be found on the ancient emblems of the cities of Mirgorod, Lubny, Pryluky and some others. In the seventeenth century the banners of the Cossacks were blue with gold stars or with pictures of saints embroidery in gold.

The National Emblem (coat of arms)

Similar to other European nations, the National Emblems of Ukraine have changed during the millennium of Ukrainian history owing to various political, social, cultural and other factors. The contemporary national coat of arms of Ukraine is a trident. The first image of a trident appeared in the ninth century A.D when Ihor, Prince of Kyivan Rus sent ambassadors to sign a treaty with the Byzantine Emperor and they sealed the document with a trident. As the official emblem of Kyivan princes the trident was stamped on the gold and silver coins and seals of Volodymyr the Great (979 – 1015), the Grand Prince of Kyiv; you can also see it on frescoes and porcelain dishes of that time. The trident left to Volodymyr the Great by his ancestors became a hereditary preharaldic badge of all his descendants and rules of the Kyivan Rus. Trident continued to be used as additional dynastic badge until the 15^th century, though the image of Saint Michael the Archangel was the highest national symbols in the 12^th century.

The secrets of the origin and meaning of the Ukrainian trident have still not been completely solved by scholars. The archaeological finds of trident in Ukraine go back to the first century A.D. Undoubtedly this emblem was a mark of authority and a mystic symbol of one or several of the ethnic groups which inhabited ancient Ukrainian territory and which came to compose the Ukrainian nation. It is thought that the trident represented the division of the world into three spheres: the earthly, the celestial and the spiritual – as well as the of the three natural elements: air, water and earth.

In 1918 the trident was adopted as the national symbol of Independed Ukraine. The Soviet Ukraine replaced it with its own coat of arms – a crossed hammer and sickle on a red shield with a red star above it and the rising sun in the base. Sovereign Ukraine adopted the emblem again in 1992.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29