Lithuania’s flag is a horizontal tricolour of yellow, green, and red. Proposed in 1917–1918 and adopted on 25 April 1918, it was widely used until Soviet annexation in 1940, then suppressed and replaced by SSR designs. Re‑legalized in March 1988 and reinstated by law in 1989, it preceded the 11 March 1990 restoration of independence. A 5:3 ratio with equal bands is prescribed; protocols fix flag days, co‑display, half‑masting, and dignified retirement. Yellow symbolizes sun and light, green forests and renewal, and red courage and sacrifice. The tricolour anchors civic identity across state, diplomatic, and public settings.
Lithuania’s yellow–green–red tricolour distils landscape, memory, and national aspiration into a design developed in the final years of World War I and restored during the independence movement of the late 1980s. Its three equal horizontal bands—yellow above, then green and red—were proposed by artists and scholars convened in Vilnius in 1917–1918 as the Council of Lithuania prepared to proclaim statehood.
Antanas Žmuidzinavičius and other cultural figures weighed colour combinations that could represent Lithuania distinctly while drawing from local symbolism. The final palette acquired widely taught meanings: yellow for the sun, light, and prosperity; green for forests, fertility, and hope; red for the blood shed in the defense of freedom and for civic courage. On 25 April 1918, the Council adopted the tricolour as the national flag; interwar decrees set a 5:3 ratio and equal stripes, with guidance for respectful display, half‑masting, and precedence.
The interwar republic (1918–1940) flew the flag at ministries, schools, courts, and diplomatic missions abroad, while military and presidential standards incorporated heraldry such as the Vytis (the mounted knight). Protocols differentiated civil and state uses without altering the tricolour’s basic form. In 1919 the flag was raised over Gediminas Tower in Vilnius—an image that remains central to national commemoration and is marked annually on Flag Day (1 January).
Soviet annexation in 1940 criminalized the tricolour’s public display. The Lithuanian SSR used a red field with the hammer and sickle, later adding a green and white stripe at the base; Nazi occupation (1941–1944) did not restore the tricolour officially, and under renewed Soviet rule after 1944 the ban returned. The national colours survived in exile communities, churches, and clandestine circles, where the tricolour often served as a sacramental object linking family memory with national hope.
The late‑1980s Sąjūdis movement brought the flag back into the open. On 11 March 1988 the tricolour appeared publicly at mass rallies; on 20 March 1989 the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR re‑legalized it as the national flag. This legal rehabilitation preceded the Act of the Re‑Establishment of the State of Lithuania on 11 March 1990, which restored independence and set a course for international recognition. Subsequent laws reaffirmed the 5:3 ratio, equal bands, and colour standards, and codified flag days and etiquette across public life and abroad.
Today, legislation mandates display on major anniversaries (16 February, 11 March), at state and municipal institutions, and at diplomatic missions. Co‑display rules with the European Union flag and other national flags prioritize Lithuanian precedence on national soil while adhering to international protocol. Flags must be clean, intact, and properly oriented; worn flags are retired respectfully, typically by burning. Unauthorized alteration, commercial misuse, or desecration can draw administrative penalties.
Alongside the civil national flag, Lithuania maintains historical and ceremonial banners. The state (presidential) standard incorporates the Vytis on crimson, recalling medieval heraldry, and military colours combine the tricolour with unit devices within separate regulations. These variants underscore continuity from the Grand Duchy through the interwar republic to today’s parliamentary democracy without complicating the simple civic emblem seen in streets and classrooms.
Internationally, the tricolour signals Lithuania’s European orientation. Since accession to the United Nations (1991) and the EU and NATO (2004), it has flown at summits and operations beside allied flags. At cultural festivals and sporting events, the yellow–green–red appears in apparel and displays that blend national pride with a welcoming public style, reinforcing the flag’s reputation as bright, clear, and inclusive.
Debates over shades, sequence, or heraldic alternatives have occasionally surfaced, but the tricolour’s popular legitimacy—earned first in 1918 and renewed in 1988–1990—has kept it stable. As a legal and cultural artefact, it functions as a daily civics lesson: the sunlit horizon above forests and the red line of sacrifice binding past to present. In this way the flag organizes memory into colour and gives modern Lithuanian identity a portable, durable form.