Flying pennant

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

A friend just asked me this. Can anyone explain?

June

"On my last visit to Narpes, I was given a long pendant/streamer. It is red and yellow and seems to fly from most farms in the area. The hem has printing that says "Ruotsinkielinen" but they told
me it is the Ostobotten flag. What does it mean?"

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

It is a typical "master's pennant". The idea is to hoist it to the flagpole when you are at home, and to lower it when you are away. This is of course not a good idea whith so many thieves and rogues around.

You do not have to follow official flagging rules with the pennant, so you can keep it up day and night.

There are various pennants for the different areas in Finland. The red/yellow one is for the Swedish part of Österbotten.

Here i Borgå, which is in Östra Nyland the pennant is blue and white and has the Östra Nyland's coat of arms at the root i.e. three silver flames on blue.

You can signal where you originally came from by hoisting your home area's pennant in the "foreign" ara you have moved to.

And then there is the all Finnish pennant, wich of course i white and blue.

Sune

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Flying Pennant

Thanks, Sune. Very interesting. One summer when I was in Finland relatives took me for a boat ride around a lake and pointed out various cottages with flags flying. They said the flags told them the owners were at home for the day. And they also said that if they had an American flag they would have flown it in honor of my visit.

June

[socar Registered Find all posts View Profile Close socar]

Flying Pennant

Three weeks ago when I was in Kerava Finland and returned to my cousin's home after picking up my sister from the airport, she said "Now I must go raise the flag!" She proudly raised the Finnish Pennant of blue and white in our honor.

[syrene Registered Find all posts View Profile Close syrene]

pennants

I was told in Finland with a smile that the red and yellow flag means "Swedish spoken here!"
Syrene