page_title: Nordic cross flag
hierarchical_section_title: Nordic cross flag
caption_attribution_description: English: Flags of the Nordic countries - from left: Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Taken outside Bella Center, Copenhagen.
context_page_description: The Nordic cross flag is any of certain flags bearing the design of the Nordic or Scandinavian cross, a cross symbol in a rectangular field, with the center of the cross shifted towards the hoist.
  All independent Nordic countries have adopted such flags in the modern period, and while the Scandinavian cross is named for its use in the national flags of the Scandinavian nations, the term is used universally by vexillologists, in reference not only to the flags of the Nordic countries but to other flags with similar designs. The sideways cross is also known as the Cross of Saint Philip the Apostle, who preached not in Scandinavia but in Greece, Phrygia and Syria instead.
  The cross design represents Christianity, and the characteristic shift of the center to the hoist side is early modern, first described the Danish civil ensign for merchant ships in a regulation of 11 June 1748, which specified the shift of the cross center towards the hoist as "the two first fields must be square in form and the two outer fields must be ​⁶⁄₄ lengths of those".
context_section_description: The Nordic cross flag is any of certain flags bearing the design of the Nordic or Scandinavian cross, a cross symbol in a rectangular field, with the center of the cross shifted towards the hoist.
  All independent Nordic countries have adopted such flags in the modern period, and while the Scandinavian cross is named for its use in the national flags of the Scandinavian nations, the term is used universally by vexillologists, in reference not only to the flags of the Nordic countries but to other flags with similar designs. The sideways cross is also known as the Cross of Saint Philip the Apostle, who preached not in Scandinavia but in Greece, Phrygia and Syria instead. 
  The cross design represents Christianity, and the characteristic shift of the center to the hoist side is early modern, first described the Danish civil ensign (Koffardiflaget) for merchant ships in a regulation of 11 June 1748, which specified the shift of the cross center towards the hoist as "the two first fields must be square in form and the two outer fields must be ​⁶⁄₄ lengths of those". The Danish design was adopted for the flags of Norway (civil ensign 1821) and Sweden (1906), both derived from a common ensign used during the Union between Sweden and Norway 1818–1844, as well as Iceland (1915) and Finland (1917); some of the subdivisions of these countries used this as inspiration for their own flags. The Norwegian flag was the first Nordic cross flag with three colours. 
  All Nordic flags may be flown as gonfalons as well.
caption: Nordic flags, from left to right: the flags of Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, respectively.
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