The flag of Bonaire, adopted in 1981, represents a Dutch island in the

Caribbean Netherlands ) , image_map = BES islands location map.svg , map_caption = Location of the Caribbean Netherlands (green and circled). From left to right: Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius , elevation_max_m = 887 , elevation_max_footnotes = , demographics ...

Bonaire Bonaire (; , ; pap, Boneiru, , almost pronounced ) is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west ( leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC i ...

commemorates Flag Day on September 6 annually, the traditional date Europeans first arrived on the island. The professional vexillologist

Whitney Smith Whitney Smith Jr. (February 26, 1940 – November 17, 2016) was a professional vexillologist and scholar of flags. He originated the term ''vexillology'', which refers to the scholarly analysis of all aspects of flags. He was a founder of se ...

was involved in developing Bonaire's flag. The flag has a large dark blue band in the lower right corner and a smaller yellow band in the upper left corner. The dark blue and yellow bands represent the sea and sun respectively while the dividing white strip represents the sky. The yellow band was formerly red as a reference to the

Dutch flag The national flag of the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlandse vlag) is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. The current design originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue '' Prinsenvlag'' ("Prince's Flag"), evolv ...

, but was changed at some point to avoid having two separated sections of red (from the star). The coloured bands are separated by a white strip, inside of which is a black

compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

and a red six-pointed star. The black compass represents the population of Bonaire as a seafaring people, while the arrows adjuting it symbolises equality in the four

cardinal directions The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, E, S, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are a ...

of the compass. The red six-pointed star represents the original six villages of Bonaire:

Antriol Antriol (also ''Entrejol'') is a neighbourhood of Kralendijk on the island of Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles. It used to be a separate village which has merged into Kralendijk. History Antriol was founded in 1626 by Spanish and Portuguese c ...

, Nikiboko, Nort Saliña, Playa, Rincon and Tera Korá.

References

Flags of the Netherlands Antilles Bonaire Flags introduced in 1981 1981 establishments in the Netherlands Antilles {{Bonaire-stub

See also

References