Aruba, 1976

On 18 March 1976, Aruba adopted a flag of its own: a field of light blue, representing the sea and the sky. Within the top hoist is a white-bordered red four-pointed star; it stands for the island itself and greets people of all four directions of the wind. Two narrow parallel horizontal yellow stripes in the bottom half stand for the “wanglo”, a rain-flower that sometimes, with its yellow colour, lights up the whole island; it also denotes the free and separate position Aruba enjoys in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The flag was designed in part by vexillologist Whitney Smith.