Editing Flag of Greenland (section)

== History ==
Greenland first entertained the idea of a flag of its own in 1973 when five Greenlanders proposed a green, white and blue flag. The following year, a newspaper solicited eleven design proposals (all but one of which was a [[Nordic Cross Flag| Nordic cross]]) and polled the people to determine the most popular.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UiLFMfm1R9AC&pg=PA168|title=Denmark-Greenland in the Twentieth Century|last=Sørensen|first=Axel Kjær|date=2009|publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press|isbn=9788763512763|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Flag of Greenland Construction.svg|thumb|Construction sheet of the flag of Greenland]]
The deciding committee came to [[Consensus decision-making|no consensus]], so more proposals were solicited. Finally, the present red-and-white design by [[Thue Christiansen]] narrowly won over a green-and-white Nordic cross by a vote of fourteen to eleven.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/nu-vajer-det-groenlandske-flag-over-danmark|title=Nu vajer det grønlandske flag over Danmark|date=21 June 2016 |access-date=2016-06-24}}</ref> Christiansen's red-and-white flag was officially adopted on 21 June 1985.<ref name=norden/>

To honour the tenth anniversary of the flag, the Greenland [[Post Office]] issued commemorative [[postage stamp]]s and a leaflet by the flag's creator.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://flagspot.net/flags/gl.html#meaning|title=Greenland (Denmark)|website=flagspot.net|access-date=2017-09-01}}</ref> He described the white stripe as representing the [[glacier]]s and ice cap, which cover more than 80% of the island; the red stripe, the [[ocean]]; the red semicircle, the sun, with its bottom part sunk in the ocean; and the white semicircle, the [[iceberg]]s and pack ice. The design is also reminiscent of the setting [[Sun]] half-submerged below the horizon and reflected on the sea.<ref name="naalakkersuisut"/> In 1985, it was reported that Greenland's flag had exactly the same motif as the flag of the Danish rowing club HEI Rosport, which was founded before Greenland's flag was chosen. It is not clear whether this is a case of plagiarism or just a coincidence, but the rowing club gave Greenland permission to use their flag.<ref>{{cite web|title=(Danish) Grønland må gerne bruge roklub-flag|date=3 October 2006 |url=http://politiken.dk/indland/ECE181234/groenland-maa-gerne-bruge-roklub-flag/|publisher=Politiken|access-date=15 July 2014}}</ref>

The colours of the flag are the same as those of the [[flag of Denmark]], symbolizing Greenland's place in the Danish realm.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Greenland Flag |url=https://www.norden.org/en/fakta-om-norden-1/the-nordic-flags/the-greenland-flag |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304060239/https://www.norden.org/en/fakta-om-norden-1/the-nordic-flags/the-greenland-flag |archive-date=Mar 4, 2018 |website=Nordic Co-operation}}</ref>

{{gallery|mode=nolines|whitebg=y|height=100|align=center
|Flag of Iceland (KGH).svg|The flag of the [[Royal Greenland Trading Department]] used before 1908|Flag of Denmark.svg|The [[flag of Denmark]] was used before the Greenlandic flag became official.
|Flag of Greenland.svg|{{FIAV|normal}} Current Greenlandic flag
}}