Dozens of students from high schools around the country joined the Government to joyously celebrate Country’s 169th National Flag Day despite as usual the heavy down pour of rains in nation’s Capital, Monrovia; parading of the principle streets of Monrovia by well dressed in their respective uniforms military, paramilitary and students drew huge the attention of hundreds of Liberians and foreign residents to watch the parades.
The celebration which started as early as 7am saw the national ensign flown over public and private buildings as well as homes, as thousands queued on the sidewalks and on top of flats along Ashmun Street as the students marched towards a grand stand erected in front of the Centennial Memorial Pavilion where President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stood and received pass-in-review salutes from the schools.
Held under the theme: “Patriotism and Self-discipline, the way forward for national transformation” the indoor ceremony was addressed by former Information Minister Reverend Emmanuel Bowier.
The Liberian flag consists of eleven horizontal stripes, six red, five white, and a blue field in the upper left corner of rectangular form, with a single white star in the center of the blue field.
The eleven stripes represent one of the eleven signers of the Declaration of Independence, while the blue field depicts Liberia as the then only independent state on the continent of Africa.
The color red symbolizes the blood of those who died in the struggle for independence; the white indicates the purity of mind and eloquence of all our forbearers towards each other; and the blue represents the dark continent of Africa as it was then depicted.
Adopted on July 26, 1847, the National Flag of Liberia was designed and produced by a committee of ladies, led by Mrs. Susannah Lewis, who were talented and visionary citizens of the Republic at the time.
