Greece’s flag has nine alternating blue and white horizontal stripes with a white cross on a blue canton. The canton sits in the upper flagpole-side corner, giving the design its unmistakable Greek identity.
The striped naval pattern was established during the Greek War of Independence. On 15 March 1822, Greece specified both a plain cross flag for use on land and the nine-stripe design for its naval ensign. The striped version gradually became the country’s principal flag, and in 1978 it was established as Greece’s sole national flag.
The white cross represents the importance of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Greek history. The nine stripes have no officially assigned meaning, although the most popular interpretation connects them with the syllables of “Freedom or Death,” a slogan associated with the independence struggle. Blue and white are also commonly linked with the Greek sky and sea.
The flag is sometimes mistaken for Uruguay’s because both use stripes and a canton, but Uruguay’s stripes are much finer and its canton contains a sun. Slovenia and Croatia have coats of arms, not Greece’s plain cross canton.