At school we learn that the green represents the forests; the yellow, gold; and the blue, the sky. Poetry for innocent ears. This is the romantic view of the facts that our teachers teach us, leaving aside the truth about brazilian greatest symbol. The real meaning of the flag is way more complex. That is what you are going to learn in the upcoming text.
The green doesn’t represent our exuberant forests. It represents the “Casa Real Portuguesa de Bragança”. A noble portuguese family, which had a lot of influence and importance in Europe and in the world till the beggining of 20th century, of which D. Pedro I was part of. Here is Pedro II, king of Portugal’s personal flag:
The yellow doesn’t represents brazilian gold, but “Casa imperial Austríaca de Habsburgo”, of which D. Leopoldina was part of. Arising at 19th century, it was dynasty of several states and territories. Here is the flag of the Habsburg Monarchy:
The blue and the stars symbolize national states and their position in the sky of Rio de Janeiro on the date of the Proclamation of the Republic. Maybe the only thing poetic and brazilian in the flag. However, some say that the blue and white were also the used colors in portuguese flags. Next you can see the name of each star and the state which each represent.
Ordem e Progresso. The theme was based on positivist phrase “Love as a principle and order based; Progress at last.” (L’amour pour principe et l’ordre pour base; pour le progrès but.). Of the French philosopher Auguste Comte.
The current brazilian flag was created by Raimundo Teixeira Mendes (positivist philosopher and mathematician), Miguel Lemos (director of Positivist Apostolate of Brazil), Manuel Pereira Reis (astronomer) and Décio Villares (painter).
Even after everything: the flag still being the most beautiful of all the flags.
