Day of the State Flag of Ukraine (Ukrainian. The Day of Sovereign Prapor of Ukraine, which is celebrated annually on August 23 and is a public holiday, is established by Decree of the President of the country № 987/2004 of August 23, 2004.
State flag of Ukraine — flag of two equal horizontal stripes of blue and yellow with a ratio of the width of the flag to its length of 2:3.
The use of yellow and blue colors (with different shades) on the flags of Ukraine can be traced back to the adoption of Christianity. Subsequently, these two colors acquired the significance of state ones. In the mid-17th century, after the annexation of the Hetmanate to the Russian state, blue (blue) panels with gold or yellow images of crosses and other signs became widespread. Since the time of the Cossacks, the yellow-blue combination of colors has gradually begun to dominate Ukrainian banners, flags and kleinodes.
After the tradition of Cossack symbols was interrupted, for a long time in Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire, the question of national symbols was not raised.
The first attempt to create a yellow-blue flag from two horizontal stripes, approximately the same shape as now, was carried out by the Main Russian Rada (the body that represented the national movement of the Ukrainian population of Galicia). In June 1848, the yellow-blue flag was raised for the first time at the Lviv City Hall.
The impetus for the spread of such symbols in Ukraine was the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia. On March 22, 1918, the Central Council adopted the Law on the State Flag of the Republic, approving the yellow-blue flag as a symbol of the Ukrainian People's Republic. On November 13, 1918, this flag also became the state symbol of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. It was approved in Subcarpathian Rus, and in 1939 — in Carpathian Ukraine. During the period 1917 — of early 1919, the blue and yellow flag was used in Ukraine by the Bolsheviks.
On August 24, 1991, the proclamation of the Act of Independence of Ukraine took place, and a blue and yellow flag rose over the building of the Verkhovna Rada. On September 18, 1991, by the Resolution of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, it was approved as the official symbol of the country.
The blue and yellow color combination finally took shape as a unified one at the beginning of the 21st century. According to a popular modern interpretation, yellow symbolizes ripe wheat fields as a symbol of prosperity, and blue — a clear sky above them.
Traditionally, Ukraine celebrates the Day of the State Flag with a set of ceremonial and educational events dedicated to the history of the flag and other state symbols.