Philippine Revolutionary Flag

[kampilan]

Found this interesting picture of a Revolutionary flag:


rbhayes.pastperfect-online.com/31794cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=B506543E-ADCC-4E21-BEA5-302011767469;type=101

What's the deal with the frills?

[VeeVee]

Thanks for posting this most interesting artifact... that's the scariest Filipino flag I've ever seen ;D Good find though.

Do you think the yellow was originally a faded red? I think someone back in 1899 just didn't have red material and used yellow.

Very cool. Thanks for posting.

[kampilan]

I would have to say that the cloth probably faded with time. the color red signifies very strongly with us Filipinos. I would assume that anything other than that color on our flag would be unacceptable.
I accidentally found the page while I was helping my nephew with his homework regarding American presidents. What's neat is by inserting keywords like "philippine", "Philippines", etc., on the "Keyword Search" button on the left, there's tons of turn of the century Philippine artifacts (a lot from the Mindanao area) in that museum. There's even an Anting-anting:

rbhayes.pastperfect-online.com/31794cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=EB206E78-1D9E-434F-AF3E-403451030646;type=101

pretty neat, huh?

[79thfoot]

what IS the deal with the frills? They look like silver foil from a Christmas decoration. The 'yellow' actually does look reddish to me.

[kampilan]

I would half guess that the frills around the Sun represents the ray, but what's the deal with the frills around the stars?

[99luftbalut]

Hi guys, it's been awhile since i've visited this site. a friend of mine alerted me about this topic.
first of all, i was fortunate to help out in identifying the various filipino artifact at Hayes Museum.
this specific flag is significant in filipino history. the flag was captured by Lt. Col. Webb Hayes upon his arrival in the Islands. it was in the same conflict that he earned his Congressional Medal of Honor. based on the date of the conflict, and locality, i've narrowed down who was Lt. Col. Hayes' opponent was. it was none other than General Manuel Tinio, and it was during their skermish on dec. 5, 1899.
in that collection, there are other pretty valuable artifacts.
i hope this helps

regards
ron zambarrano

[dimasalang]

Given the actual size(~15" in length), the angle of the face on the sun, and a stick running through the mast area with frills on the ends, in my opinion I would say the item was used as a gonfalon. The supposed original flag Aguinaldo posed with in photos has the sun's face going from blue to red, which leads me to believe the flag was never intended to be flown with the red side up. There are several photos of Philippine flags during the Philippine American War and all of them have the blue side up...so I believe the idea "red side up for war" did not arise during that time. After the Phil-Am War the only other time we were at war was WWII, so my guess would be around that time.

[99luftbalut]

hi dimasalang,
thank you for pointing out that this banner could have indeed been a gonfalon. that's a strong possibility. with that said, even if it was, the red stripe would've still been on the right side of the viewer,denoting war. in regards to aguinaldo's original flag, you are indeed correct, in my opinion, it wasn't intended to have dual purpose, as in wartime or peace time. when aguinaldo conceived the new flag for the new republic, the blue stripe was designed to be on top. the flag that was hoisted at the window of the Aguinaldo Mansion in Kawit, Cavite, was unfurled during peacetime (june 12, 1898). a few books and websites(which i have used for my research)suggested that it was during the Philippine-War that the tradition of flying the red stripe on top during war was started.
www.philippinecountry.com/philippineflag.html
philippinesarchipelago.com/symbols/flag.html
flagspot.net/flags/ph.html
i would say that during that time, it wasn't a 'hard' rule, that it must fly that way, rather it was adapted by different units, while some unit that has the flag made prior to the conflict didn't have a choice but to fly the flag with the blue on top, even during the war. btw, the flag/gonfalon is close to 25" in length. i have a feeling though, that the silver frills were added by the americans after its capture for fun. here's another filipino flag in that collection:
spunjer.notlong.com

hope this helps

ron zambarrano

[VeeVee]

Ron, thanks for the links. They're great references. -victor

[dimasalang]

May 2, 2008 15:37:24 GMT -5 99luftbalut said:

hi dimasalang,
thank you for pointing out that this banner could have indeed been a gonfalon. that's a strong possibility. with that said, even if it was, the red stripe would've still been on the right side of the viewer,denoting war. in regards to aguinaldo's original flag, you are indeed correct, in my opinion, it wasn't intended to have dual purpose, as in wartime or peace time. when aguinaldo conceived the new flag for the new republic, the blue stripe was designed to be on top. the flag that was hoisted at the window of the Aguinaldo Mansion in Kawit, Cavite, was unfurled during peacetime (june 12, 1898). a few books and websites(which i have used for my research)suggested that it was during the Philippine-War that the tradition of flying the red stripe on top during war was started.
www.philippinecountry.com/philippineflag.html
philippinesarchipelago.com/symbols/flag.html
flagspot.net/flags/ph.html
i would say that during that time, it wasn't a 'hard' rule, that it must fly that way, rather it was adapted by different units, while some unit that has the flag made prior to the conflict didn't have a choice but to fly the flag with the blue on top, even during the war. btw, the flag/gonfalon is close to 25" in length. i have a feeling though, that the silver frills were added by the americans after its capture for fun. here's another filipino flag in that collection:
spunjer.notlong.com

hope this helps

ron zambarrano

Thanks for that insight and that website. Sorry I meant to say the flag was 25"...15" was a typo. Given the time the flag(with the frills) was taken, Christmas was around the corner for them...they probably decorated it. I will have to send pics of the two flags to my friend Paolo in Italy to see what he has to say. He is a historian on Philippine Flags.
xoomer.alice.it/watawat/

I never bothered searching through the President Hayes website until now, and wow, lots of Moro and Phil-Am War artifacts. I never knew Webb Hayes was in fact President Hayes's son, now it makes sense why a Presidents museum center has lots of Philippine relics. Webb also has two Remington Rolling Block rifles he kept from the battle at Vigan, interesting how both the rear sights are still in tact.

[99luftbalut]

Ron, thanks for the links. They're great references. -victor

you're quite welcome, VeeVee



dimasalang,
it was actually the moro weapons that brought me to that place. saw an obscure picture on the 'net regarding their collection. when i contacted the museum, i found out that it was just the tip of the iceberg. from there, they were nice enough to let me see their vast collection in person. also, it was also nice to know that rather than storing all these priceless relics in some damp basement, hayes museum were really taking good care of them. it was really surreal to see these weapons like they were made recently. pretty cool stuff...

[paopadd]

Hi friends, the flag now have the yellow stripe but the original color was, without any doubt red, the yellow color is the consequence of many factors like atmosphere events etc.
The frills are merely a decoration, we have many kind of revolutionary flags with some "additions " like the sun made in copper or iron etc. without any reference with the Christmas time.
Almost all the revolutionary flags of that period were displayed like a gonfalon, this apparently strange manner to display flags was also common in many Countries and Regions of Europe , America and Asia.
The way the mythological sun is placed on the flag suggest us that the flag was displayed like a gonfalon rather than a "common" flag.... .

[99luftbalut]

thanks for the clarification, paopadd

[Jogador96]

The frills on the flag and the makeshift drawing of the mythological sun face thereon would indicate that it was a makeshift flag devised in the field. Since the fledgling Philippine Republic was fighting for its life right after it was born, there was no time to devise a system for imprinting and distributing standard issue flags. Each unit often had to improvise using what was available.

We can see this in the large variation of designs found in captured flags. On the internet one can see flags where the blue field was apparently made out of large cloth with tiny designs on it, or where the yellow sun was hand painted. In this case the frills were cut out of other materials and the sun face was drawn by hand.

[paopadd]

I'm totally agree with you jogador96: " there was no time to devise a system for imprinting and distributing standard issue flags. Each unit often had to improvise using what was available....."