CIRCA - 1879 🇧🇬 - horizontal tricolor of white (top), green (middle) & red (bottom) in equal stripes

HISTORY: Drawn from earlier Bulgarian nationalists' revolutionary banners, c.1860's, the tricolor (inspired by Russia's tricolor🔍,

as the preeminent Slavic🔍 power) was adopted after the Russo-Turkish War & Bulgaria's escape from Ottoman rule.

In the communist era (1946-90) it incorporated various socialist emblems in the white stripe

canton, but it was restored to plain form in 1990 amid the transition to democracy.

VEXILLOLOGY:* The flags endurance underscores its role as a symbol of national continuity through political upheavals,

with the colors carrying traditional 19c pan-Slavic national revivalist interpretations;

• The WHITE Stripe  .symbolizing peace  ☮︎ , freedom & virtue

• The GREEN Stripe  (a substitution for blue🔍, common in other Slavic flags) is for agricultural fertility & natural beauty, both symbolizing vitality & renewal

• The    RED Stripe    represents bravery, bloodshed 🩸 & sacrifices for the realm

The design is similar to the contemporarily designed Hungarian flag🔍 & Lithuanian flag🔍 a few decades later, but the resemblances are not intentional.

* The STUDY of FLAGS; their history, symbolism, usage, and design. From Latin vexillum - referring to a Roman military standard / flag (from velum= cloth/ covering/sail/curtain

[PIE🔍 root weg = to weave / to cover]) + Greek suffix -logia = study]