A flag display in front of Reykjavík City Hall was initially thought to be in violation of Iceland’s existing flag laws.
RÚV reports that a number of different flags were on display by city hall, including one which appeared to be the official flag of Iceland. Police initially thought this display might have been illegal – by Icelandic law, the flag may only be displayed with flags that are official flags of other nations.
However, the matter turns out to be a misunderstanding. In fact, the flag display is a part of Design March. One part of this was a contest to design a new flag for Iceland. Many of those flags submitted were displayed in front of city hall, including a flag that very closely resembled the flag Iceland uses today. Greipur Gíslason, the project manager of the festival, told Vísir that the misunderstanding has been cleared up with the police.
The Icelandic flag celebrates its 100th birthday this year. In 1914, the general public was asked to submit their ideas for the country’s flag. You can see some of these century-old submissions here. In fact, the flag shown above was one of the submissions from 1914.
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