The National symbols of Colombia are the

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

s which represent the national identity of the

Republic of Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

as a

sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a polity, political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defin ...

. The national symbols intend to represent the Colombian identity by creating visual, verbal

cultural icon A cultural icon is a person or an artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen as an authentic ...

ic representations of the national

people A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

, values, goals, and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

. These symbols are often rallied around as part of celebrations of

patriotism Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...

and are designed to be inclusive and representative of all the peoples of the national community.

National flag

The

Colombian flag The national flag of Colombia symbolises Colombian independence from Spain, gained on 20 July 1810. It is a horizontal tricolor of yellow, blue and red. The yellow stripe takes up a half of the flag and the blue and red take up a quarter of th ...

was defined in 1934 by the Decrees 861 of 1934, expedited by the

Government of Colombia The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches. Its legislature has a congress, its judiciary has a supreme court, and its executive branch has a president. The citiz ...

during the

presidencies A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...

of General

Pedro Nel Ospina Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

and

Enrique Olaya Herrera Enrique Alfredo Olaya Herrera (12 November 1880 – 18 February 1937) was a Colombian journalist and politician. He served as President of Colombia from 7 August 1930 until 7 August 1934 representing the Colombian Liberal Party. Early years ...

. As defined in the

Constitution of Colombia The Political Constitution of Colombia of 1991 ( es, Constitución Política de Colombia de 1991), is the Constitution of the Republic of Colombia. It was promulgated in Constitutional Gazette number 114 on Thursday, July 4, 1991, and is also ...

Decree number 861 of May 17, 2014 in Article 1, the pavilion, flag and standard of the Republic of Colombia is composed by the yellow, blue and red colors distributed in three horizontal stripes. The yellow top stripe is positioned in the upper area of the flag and has a width of half of the entire flag horizontally. The other two stripes the middle blue and the bottom red will each be a fourth of the total area of the flag. The yellow color represents Colombia's gold and natural wealthiness; the blue color represents the two oceans that border Colombia, the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and

Atlantic ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

s, rivers and the sky; The red color represents the blood of the patriots that fought against the Spanish monarchy to gain the independence of Colombia. Authorized variations of the Colombian flag also represent the merchant flag of Colombia, the War flag of Colombia exclusively used by the

Colombian Army The National Army of Colombia ( es, Ejército Nacional de Colombia) is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, ...

. The flag with the Colombian coat of arms is of exclusive use of the armed institutions of Colombi

Coat of arms

The

coat of arms of Colombia The coat of arms of Colombia contains a shield with numerous symbols. Perched on top of the shield is an Andean condor holding an olive crown and the condor symbolizing freedom. The national motto, ''Libertad y Orden'' (Spanish for ''Liberty and ...

is divided into three horizontal stripes: the upper band, on a blue field, has in the center a golden pomegranate red open grained, with stem and leaves of gold. On each side of the pomegranate is a cornucopia of gold inclined, pouring coins into the center of the right side, and proper fruits of the torrid zone the left side. The grenade denotes the name he bore this republic, and cornucopias, its rich mines and the fertility of their land. All environmental, platinum field, has in its center a Phrygian cap horned into a spear, a symbol of freedom, (Platinum, precious metal, typical of our country). At the lower end is the Isthmus of Panama was part of Colombia in the past, with its two adjacent seas wavy silver, and a black ship, under sail in each. This El condor symbolizing freedom. From its peak hangs a green laurel wreath and flowing ribbon, grabbed the shield and woven into the crown, is read on gold with black letters: Freedom and Order. Four horns arising inclined shield (two on the right and two to the left) hang four national flags surrounding Flags are linked at the bottom.

Four flags

The shield is posing over four flags of Colombia diverging from the base in which the two upper ones form an angle of 90° and separated from the bottom ones 15°. These flags are posted towards the coat of arms'

vertex Vertex, vertices or vertexes may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics and computer science *Vertex (geometry), a point where two or more curves, lines, or edges meet *Vertex (computer graphics), a data structure that describes the position ...

National tree

The wax palm tree ''

Ceroxylon quindiuense ''Ceroxylon quindiuense'', often called Quindío wax palm, is a palm native to the humid montane forests of the Andes in Colombia and northern Peru. Description This palm species can grow to a height of —or rarely, even as high as . It i ...

'', is a palm native to the Andean high altitude Cocora valley in the department of Quindío, northwest Colombia. Also known as the Quindío wax, the wax palm is the tallest palm tree in the world.

National flower

The national flower of Colombia is the

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

Cattleya trianae ''Cattleya trianae'' (Lind. & Rchb. fil), also known as ''Flor de Mayo'' ("May flower") or "Christmas orchid", is a plant of the family Orchidaceae. It grows as an epiphytic orchid, with succulent leaves, endemic to Colombia where it was nomin ...

'' which was named after the Colombian naturalist

José Jerónimo Triana José Jerónimo Triana Silva (May 22, 1828 in Bogotá – October 31, 1890 in Paris) was a Colombian botanist, explorer, and physician who cataloged over 60,000 specimens representing 8,000 species. In 1851, he joined the Chorographic Commission ...

. The orchid was selected by botanist Emilio Robledo, in representation of the Colombian Academy of History to determine the most representative flowering plant of Colombia. He described it as one of the most beautiful flowers in the world and selected ''Cattleya trianae'' as National symbol.

Items related to the national identity

File:Vultur gryphus -Doué-la-Fontaine Zoo, France-8a.jpg,

Andean condor The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus'') is a giant South American Cathartid vulture and is the only member of the genus ''Vultur''. Found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, the Andean condor is the larg ...

in Colombia File:Roasted coffee beans.jpg,

Colombian coffee Coffee production in Colombia has a reputation for producing mild, well-balanced coffee beans. Colombia's average annual coffee production of 11.5 million bags is the third total highest in the world, after Brazil and Vietnam, though highe ...

has a

Protected Designation of Origin The protected designation of origin (PDO) is a type of geographical indication of the European Union and the United Kingdom aimed at preserving the designations of origin of food-related products. The designation was created in 1992 and its main ...

File:Gachala Emerald 3526711557 849c4c7367.jpg,

Gachalá Emerald The Gachalá Emerald, one of the most valuable and famous emeralds in the world, was found in 1967, in the mine called Vega de San Juan, located in Gachala, a town in Colombia, located from Bogota. Gachalá Chibcha means "place of Gacha." Pre ...

Colombian emeralds Emeralds are green precious gemstones that are mined in various geological settings. They are minerals in the beryl group of silicates. For more than 4,000 years, emeralds have been among the most valuable of all jewels. Colombia, located in nort ...

have the highest quality worldwide File:Pink rose albury botanical gardens.jpg, Colombia is the main producer and exporter of

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

s worldwide File:Vesuvio Bien Vee - Paso Fino Bellas Formas National Champion 3 Year Old Gelding in 2001; photo taken in May of 2006.JPG,

Paso Fino The Paso Fino is a naturally gaited light horse breed dating back to horses imported to the Caribbean from Spain. Pasos are prized for their smooth, natural, four-beat, lateral ambling gait; they are used in many disciplines, but are especially ...

is the national

horse breed A horse breed is a selectively bred population of domesticated horses, often with pedigrees recorded in a breed registry. However, the term is sometimes used in a broader sense to define landrace animals of a common phenotype located within a lim ...

File:Schrecklicherpfeilgiftfrosch-01.jpg, Colombia has the highest diversity of

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

species in the world. Photo: the most poisonous vertebrate ever, ''

Phyllobates terribilis The golden poison frog (''Phyllobates terribilis''), also known as the golden dart frog or golden poison arrow frog, is a poison dart frog endemic to the rainforests of Colombia. The golden poison frog has become endangered due to habitat destr ...

'' File:Heliconia rostrata 4.jpg, Colombia has the largest amount of ''

Heliconia ''Heliconia'', derived from the Greek word (), is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the ca 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the we ...

'' species worldwide File:Sombrero vueltiao.jpg, Sombrero vueltiao File:Tejo cancha.jpg,

Tejo Tejo may refer to: *Tagus (Portuguese: ''Tejo''), a river on the Iberian Peninsula. *Tejo (sport), a sport and national pastime of Colombia. *Tejo (Argentina), a sport and national pastime of Argentina. *Tutmonda Esperantista Junulara Organizo (Wo ...

is the national sport File:Ognorhynchus icterotis -Colombia-8.jpg, Colombia has the highest

endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

in the world, with 10% of all described species. Photo:

Yellow-eared parrot The yellow-eared parrot (''Ognorhynchus icterotis'') is an endangered parrot of the tropics in South America. It is found in the Andes of Colombia. This species was thought to be extinct up until April 1999, when a group of researchers that were ...

File:Poporo by Turista Perene.jpg,

Poporo Quimbaya Poporo is a device used by indigenous cultures in present and pre-Columbian South America for storage of small amounts of lime produced from burnt and crushed sea-shells. It consists of two pieces: the receptacle, and the lid which includes a pin ...

is the symbol of the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

culture

External links

National Symbols of Colombia
Luis Ángel Arango Library. {{South America topic, National symbols of, countries_only=yes