Originally posted by Rolo Master
The last flag (1910-) that have red (to represent the blood of our soldiers), the green (of hope) and the national coat of arms.
The complete description:
The five blue shields represents the five moorish kings defeated by the first King of Portugal at the Battle of Ourique .
The dots inside the blue shields represent the five wounds of Christ when crucified. Counting the dots and doubling those five in the center, there are thirty dots that represents the coins Judas received for having betrayed Christ.
The seven castles represents the fortified cities Dom Afonso Henriques conquered from the moors.
The globe represents the world discovered by the Portuguese navigators in the fifteen and sixteenth centuries (armilliary sphere *).
The green strip is meant to simbolise the hope in the future and the red the blood of the nations heroes.
*The armilliary sphere
The armilary sphere is a main element in portuguese heraldry, being incorporated in the modern flag and in a number of historical flags of both Portugal and Brazil.
It was an astronomical and navigation instrument made of wood or metal rings ("armilas") interconnected around a central axe to form parallels, meridians and the ecliptic, allowing to calculate one's position on the earth surface by examining the stars.
It is usualy depicted in heraldry in simplified form, with only one meridian (viewed in a 180 deg. position, as a circle), and only three parallel circles, the equator and the tropics. The ecliptic (sometimes bearing four to six zodiacal signs on it), in descending position on the modern flag's obverse, is usually wider than the other circles. The central axe is also visible, sometimes overlapping the meridian (and in that case we could consider it to be a 0 degrees meridian, viewed as a vertical line...). Anyway, the parallel circles overlap the meridians, and the ecliptic overlaps them all.
Older depictions show usually the instrument's "feet", a rotative "stool", as in a modern classroom globuses, and sometimes a smaller globe in the center or on the North Pole.
The modern version consists of the sphere only, and all the elements are samewhat wider and bearing detailed edges. The width difference between the ecliptic and the other rings is much smaller.
This is great! He doesn't see the image we see, Ossric!
