25th Intrnational Congress of Vexillology, Rotterdam, Netherlands

25th Intrnational Congress of Vexillology, Rotterdam, Netherlands

It is of great importance that our country – even more important – that the publication “Flags and Stamps” will be represented by the owner of this blog,  Mr Sekhar Chakrabarti during the 25^th International Congress of Vexillology, Netherlands Flag Congress 2013, to be held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from 5^th August to 9^th August 2013.

 Boompjes Boulevard

During this vexillological world congress about 50 national member organizations of the Federation Internationale des Associations Vexillologiques (FIAV) will be represented (with over 150 participants from all over the world) and interchange knowledge on the history, tradition and importance of flags from all over the world. 

Engels Congress Center (ECC)

The Tentative Minute to Minute Programme of the Congress

The following is a tentative schedule for the 25^th  ICV 2013, the Netherlands Flag Congress 2013 at Engels Congress Center (ECC) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. This schedule is subject to change as Congress officials finalize the details. 

Monday. August 5, 2013

08.00-10.00 x Registration of delegates at Engels Congress Center (ECC), hand out of documents

08.30-08.45 x Coming together: the Rotterdam International Flag Parade at the Boompjes Boulevard

08.45-10.30 x hoisting of official flags in the Flag Parade; commemorative photo at the Flag Parade and trip by bus to Engels Congress Center.

10.30-10.40 x Welcome by the President of the Netherlands Vexillological Association / 25^th  International Congress of Vexillology Foundation in ECC / Kriterion Room

10.40-11.00 x Opening of the 25^th International Congress of Vexillology by the President of the FIAV in ECC/Kriterion Room

11.30 x Reading of papers in ECC:

11.30-12.00 - Key note speech; Paper 1

12.00-12.25 - Paper 2

14.00-14.25 - Paper 3

14.30-14.55 - Paper 4

15.20-15.45 - Paper 5

15.50-16.15 - Paper 6

16.20-16.45 - Paper 7

17.15-18.45 x Reception offered by the Rotterdam City Council in the City Hall at Coolsingel.

City Hall at Coolsingel

Tuesday. August 6, 2013

08.30-11.00 x Board meeting & General Assembly in ECC

11.30 x Reading of papers in ECC:

11.30-11.55 - Paper 8.

12.00-12.25 - Paper 9

14.00-14.25 - Paper 10

14.30-14.55 - Paper 11

15.20-15.45 - Paper 12

15.50-16.15 - Paper 13

16.20-16.45 - Paper 14

16.50-17.15 - Paper 15

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Hague Peace Palace

National Ethnological Museum.

09.00-17.15 x Vexillological tour (with luncheon) to The Hague Peace Palace (Dutch: redespaleis) The Hague Flag Parade and an exhibition of old flags of the National Ethnological Museum.

19.00-22.00 x Boat trip through the port of Rotterdam.

 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

08.30 x Reading of papers in ECC

08.30-08.55 - Paper 16

09.00-09.25 - Paper 17

09.30-09.55 - Paper 18

10.20-10.45 - Paper 19

10.50-11.15 - Paper 20

11.20-11.45 - Paper 21

11.50-12.15 - Paper 22

12.20-12.45 - Paper 23

14.00-14.25 - Paper 24

14.30-14.55 - Paper 25

15.20-15.45 - Paper 26

15.50-16.15 - Paper 27

16.20-16.45 - Paper 28

16.50-17.15 - Paper 29

18.30-21.30 x Visit to the exhibition of nineteenth century hand painted Dutch flags in the Rotterdam Maritime Museum.

Rotterdam Maritime Museum

Friday, August 9 2013

09.00 x Reading of papers in ECC

09.00-09.25 - Paper 30

09.30-09.55 - Paper 31

10.00-10.25 - Paper 32

10.45-11.10 - Paper 33

11.15-11.40 - Paper 34

11.45-12.10 - Paper 35

14.00-14.25 - Paper 36

14.30-14.55 - Paper 37

15.00-15.20 x - Paper 38

19.00-22.00 x Official closing buffet dinner and awards in the Laurens Church 

Laurens Church

Saturday, August 10 2013

 Post Conference tour

11.30-12.30: x Guided tour in the National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam

The famous ship “Amsterdam”, a replica of an 18^th century Dutch East Indiaman.

National Maritime Museum , Amsterdam

The 25th International Congress of Vexillology (ICV): Vexillology - The Study of Flags

Dutch vexillologist Theun Okkerse is the designer of the 25^th ICV  Flag.

The 25^th International Congress of Vexillology (ICV) will be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, from August 4 to 10, 2013  simultaneously the 23^rd session of the General Assembly of the Fédération Internationale des Associations Vexillologiques (FIAV), amid flag-related tours, seminars, and meetings among various vexillologists on specific topics. The Netherlands Vexillological Association, the Netherlands Flag Museum Foundation and the Rotterdam Flag Parade Foundation, the three Dutch partners joined forces to organize the 25^th ICV. http://www.nfc2013.com/

Flag parade of FIAV-members (photo: Francisco Gregoric)

The International Federation of Vexillological Associations (FIAV) is the umbrella organization of flag-studies associations worldwide. Its  members (on six continents) pursue Vexillology - the study of flags of all kinds, their history and their symbolism. FIAV's aim is to promote vexillology as science, to coordinate the activities of its members, to facilitate the exchange of information, and to bring the vexillologists of the different countries closer together. Today FIAV is an international community of over one thousand specialists and friends of flags of all kinds, organized in national or regional organizations.  Since 1965, the vexillologists of the world meet every two years in an International Congress, hosted by one of its member associations. Since 1969, FIAV has sponsored the biennial International Congresses of Vexillology (ICV). Previous Congresses have been held in Muiderberg (1965), Zürich and Ruschlikon (1967), Boston (1969), Turin (1971), London (1973), Ijsselmeer (1975), Washington D.C. (1977), Vienna (1979), Ottawa (1981), Oxford (1983), Madrid (1985),San francisco (1987), Melbourne (1989), Barcelona (1991), Zürich (1993), Warsaw (1995),  Cape Town (1997),Victoria (1999), York (2001), Stockholm (2003), Buenos Aires (2005), Berlin (2007), Yokohama (2009), and Alexandria (2011).

  The FIAV Flag is rectangular in 2:3 proportions. On royal blue field appear two horizontally positioned halyards, reaching from the hoist to the fly, which form in the centre of the flag the "vexillological knot".

The halyards symbolize Vexillology, the science of flags. The blue field of the flag and the two halyards recall navigation, which made flags known all over the world. The knot is symbol of friendship between vexillologists of all nations. The two loops of the knot represent the close ties between the two hemispheres of the world. The two halyards cross the flag from one end to the other--and beyond--thus marking the almost unending field of vexillological research.
The four ends of the halyards and the two loops together make "6", as there are six continents, expressing FIAV's international character.

 Klaes Sierksma (Netherlands) originated the idea to symbolize FIAV with a knot formed by halyards on its flag. In 1967 a committee of the 2nd International Congress of Vexillology make slight changes to Sierksma's proposal and asked Paul Krog to make the final design.

Woman with vexillum (circa 100 BCE)

Dr. Whitney Smith (b. 1940) is recognized world over as the Father of Vexillologists. The term Vexillology, which Smith originated in his 1958 article Flags of the Arab World, refers to the scholarly analysis of all aspects of flags. In his own words “When I went to the New York Public Library as a teenager (18), I discovered that flags were lumped in with heraldry and similar topics.  I felt that the study deserved a name of its own, which I coined:  vexillology—vexillum being the Latin word for flag and ology the Greek word for the study of”.

 In 1961, Boston University student Whitney Smith, 21 and New York City high school teacher Gerhard Grahl , 26 set out the initial issue of the world’s first journal devoted entirely to flags. Publication of No. 1 of The Flag Bulletin, in October 1961 can be considered the “birthday of vexillology”  because it signaled the first international, public, scholarly, and ongoing commitment to the study of flags. (The Flag Bulletin, No 118, Vol. XXXV, No 5, p.163). The following year, Smith established the Flag Research Center in USA.

Dr. Smith worked with Klaes Sierksma  to organize the First International Congress of Vexillology at Muiderberg, Netherlands in 1965. Thereafter they joined Louis Mühlemann in founding the Fédération internationale des associations vexillologiques or The International Federation of Vexillological Associations, known by its acronym—FIAV, which was formally inaugurated in 1969.

 Smith was also responsible for founding the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) in 1967. NAVA's Whitney Smith Award for an outstanding contribution to North American vexillology is named in Smith's honor.

 Dr. W. Smith has written several books on the subject of flags, notably Flags Through the Ages and Across the World, The Flag Book of the United States, and Flag Lore of all Nations.

 Dr.W. Smith was the designer of the national Flag of Guyana and has served as a vexillographer (flag designer) to a number of governments and organizations. 

 

My first contact with Dr Whitney Smith, Director of the Flag Research Center, Winchester, Mass.

 Prof. Michel Lupant took this photo of Dr. Whitney Smith on 24 July 2011 in his home in Winchester (The Flag Research Centre). Dr. Smith has in his hand the Vexillum he had manufactured himself when he was young and began his flags collection.

 

  Prof. Michel R. Lupant: President of the International Federation of Vexillological Association (FIAV), and the founder of the Belgian European Flags Studies Centre.

The National Flag of Bangladesh

26^th  March, Independence Day (Shadhinata Dibôsh) of Bangladesh. The day commemorates the country's declaration of independence from Pakistan on late hours of 25 March 1971. The day is a memorial to the deaths of thousands of civilians who died for their own Mother Language in erstwhile East Pakistan.

  Issue Date: 29-07-1971

Designer: Biman Mallik

Printer: Format International Printing Press, U.K. 

 The  flag of Bangladesh  used during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.

The map was later deleted in 1972 from the flag. The Red disc represents the sun rising over the Golden Bengal (Soner Bangla), recalls the blood of those who died for the independence of Bangladesh. The Green field may have been inspired by its association with Islam but in the flag the colour stands for the lushness of the land of Bangladesh.  The flag is said to have been designed by Serajul Ilam, whose name means “Light of the Flag”.

Indian stamp issued on 10 April 1973, in commemoration of the inauguration of the first Parliament on 26-3-1971, which gave itself a constitution on 16 December 1972. The stamp shows its National Flag with the Shapla - the National Flower of Bangladesh.

  Bangladesh in United Nations

Bangladesh joined the UN in 1974

 

  

  Freedom is heralded by hoisting of a new national flag. Inclusion of that flag in front of the UN building in New York is the symbolic equivalent of being recognized as a real country.  (The Indian National Flag unfurled through Philately (Niyogi Books, p.107).

Bangladesh National Day and Anniversary of Independence