Vexillology 101: My New Obsession w/ Flags

I've always loved flags and their symbolism. The bold colours. The art. The heraldry. The majesty of it all. Recently though, i have decided to become a much more serious Vexillologist. 

In case you were unaware, vexillology is the scientific and scholarly study of the history, symbolism, and usage of flags. The word comes from the Latin word vexillum (meaning a sort of flag or banner) and the Greek suffix -logia (meaning "study of"). So there you have it. A new word for your vocabulary. Or an old word. I don't want to assume either way.

Anyhoo, with all that in mind, and while perusing the flags of the world in my latest obsession, i wanted to shout out one of the coolest flags around - the punk-esque flag of Amsterdam, the capital of The Kingdom of the Netherlands, aka Holland.

Yeah, that's right. The place with all the tulips & windmills & klompen (the wooden shoes made famous by the Dutch traditions of Holland) has a flag that looks like it belongs on a 70's punk rock album cover! But then again, Amsterdam is also known for it's free use of hashish & other fun loving drugs, so i suppose the aesthetic of their flag is right on point.

Amsterdam has been around since the 5th Century and due to it's vast canal system, has been dubbed "The Venice of the North" even though it's waterways outdo Venice by quite a lot. Perhaps Venice should be dubbed "The Amsterdam of the South." But i digress.

The city flag was inspired by the coat of arms of the Persijn family, one of the oldest & most important families in Dutch history. Below is a 16th C. Amsterdam flag that includes said coat of arms.

The current, basic but quite cool flag was only officially adopted in 1975, although it was being used since at least the 1928 Olympic Games (see an ad for those olympics below), and is a simpler variation of the city's flag that has been used since the above 16th Century version. It's also of note that the fine folks behind the creation of the city flag and it's original 1975 promotions, do not share the same outdated, let's call it respect, for lack of a better term, for their flag as other more patriotic folk might, as can clearly be seen by the below ad from the day. (ed. note: i added the black bar so as to not be flagged for pornographic imagery)

And before i close out and go my way, below is a chart of all the city flags of The Netherlands. None are quite as classic cool as Amsterdam (though Amstelveen, a suburb of sorts to Amsterdam comes pretty close - can we say copycats) but thrre are some mighty fine ones in there for all your Vexillological wants & desires. Click on the image to get a clearer look.

So there you have it! A look at a great city flag AND my first post on Vexillology! See y'all in my next post - whatever it may be....