North Macedonia’s current national flag was adopted in 1995.
The Macedonian parliament adopted the flag on 5 October 1995. It shows a stylized golden-yellow sun on a red field, with eight broadening rays reaching toward the edges. Miroslav Grčev designed the modern version.
The date matters because North Macedonia used a different flag immediately after independence. The 1992 design displayed the Vergina Sun, an ancient Macedonian symbol with sixteen rays. Greece objected to that emblem and imposed an economic embargo, arguing that it represented Greek heritage. The dispute helped lead to the replacement of the flag in 1995.
A common mix-up is 1991, the year the country declared independence from Yugoslavia, or 1992, when the first post-Yugoslav flag was adopted. Neither date marks the current design. The eight-rayed sun is associated with the “new sun of Liberty” mentioned in the national anthem “Denes nad Makedonija.”