Symbols of Belarus

***THE STATE FLAG of the Republic of Belarus is a rectangular canvas made of two horizontal coloured stripes. The upper one is red and makes up two thirds of the width while the lower one is green and as large as one third of the flag width. A vertical red-on-white Belarusian national pattern as large as one ninth of the flag length is located near the flagpole.

***THE STATE EMBLEM of the Republic of Belarus is made up of a green outline of the Republic of Belarus lit by the golden rays of the sun rising over the globe. A five-pointed red star is located at the top of the outline. The emblem is encircled by a wreath of golden wheat heads intertwined with clover flowers on the right and flax flowers on the left. The wheat heads are embraced by a red-and-green ribbon with a golden inscription “Republic of Belarus”. The Republic celebrates the state holiday of the Belarus State Flag and State Emblem Day on the second Sunday of May every year.

***THE STATE ANTHEM of the Republic of Belarus “My Belarusy”. The music for the State Anthem of the Republic of Belarus has been written by Nestor Sokolovsky, the lyrics — by Mikhail Klimkovich and Vladimir Korizna.

The words of the State Anthem reflect development of the Republic of Belarus as a sovereign and peace-loving country. They emphasize patriotism and diligence of the nation, brotherly relations between all nationalities that live in the country.

UNOFFICIAL SYMBOLS.

Other than the national flag, anthem and emblem, Belarus has several unofficial symbols. The Cross of Saint Euphrosyne, a 12th century relic which disappeared during the Second World War is considered a spiritual symbol of Belarus. The European bison, commonly called the wisent, is seen as a symbol of Belarus and the Belavezha Forest. It is also featured on the symbols of Brest Oblast. Another widely known mascots ['mæskəts] ^{талисманы} of Belarus are stork and cornflower.

***THE CROSS OF SAINT EUPHROSYNE symbolizes Christianity [krɪstɪ'ænətɪ] in Belarus and the unity of the nation. (The Cross was decorated with gold, silver and precious ['preʃəs] stones. There were icons of saints, the founders of the Christianity, Efrosinnya and her parents on it. Paying tribute to her great service to the Motherland, the Belarusians restored the Cross of Efrosinnya and placed it in Spass-Efrosinnya Church in 1998. It has become one of the sacred ['seɪkrɪd] things in Belarus. A monument to St. Efrosinnya was erected in the centre of Polotsk in 2000).

***Many people think of Belarus and immediately think of AUROCHS the honourable residents of the Belovehzkaya Puscha national sanctuary. The Puscha was included in the list of THE WORLD HERITAGE OF HUMANKIND on December 14, 1992. Belarus has been famous for these animals since the times of Mikola Gusovski who lived in Rome in the 16^th century. The only association Europeans had of our country was an auroch.

*** THE CORN-FLOWER is the right image for the booming SLAVYANSKY BAZAR MUSIC FESTIVAL held in Vitebsk annually.

***THE STORK They call Belarus "The ground under white wings (stork’s wings) ". And it is true – there are a lot of these beautiful birds in our country. Storks are holy birds for Belarus. Storks care of posterity ^{потомство}, always live nearby from people. So our people like storks very much. We believe that storks settle only for good people. If the stork made a nest on the roof of the house, the inhabitants of this house will live happily ever after. Therefore, people are helping to equip storks nest. They put a wooden wheel on the roof or on a tall tree. Stork arrives and creates a socket on this wheel.

A good sign we have in our country. Storks fly back to Belarus in the spring. The person who sees the first flying stork, will be happy the whole year. Storks arriving from tropical countries bring with themselves spring and hope. If a person dares to hurt a stork, then other people will punish him. If a person killed a stork, he would bring misfortune to his entire clan. Therefore Byelorussians consider a stork a symbol of the country. Except for a white stork very rare black storks nest in Belarus too.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29