18/05/2023
Happy Haitian Flag Day! 🇭🇹🇭🇹🇭🇹
May 18, 2023, marks the 220th Anniversary of the Haitian Flag.
L’Union fait la Force, with Unity there is Strength. This guiding principle has been the cornerstone of Haitian beliefs, dating back to the creation of the National Flag.
During the Congress of Arcahaie in May, 1803 military leaders representing divided segments of the society united their forces against the French colonial army. This union, sealed by Jean Jacques Dessalines, a formerly enslaved man, and Alexandre Petion, a free colored man, paved the way for a victorious revolution that would lead to the only successful slave uprising in the world and eventually the birth of a Nation.
Dessalines ripped the white section out of the Red, White, and Blue French flag. It is said to symbolize the unity of the nation’s people of color, and the rejection of its white colonizers. The Red and Blue cloths were then sewn together by his goddaughter, Catherine Flon, to form the first Blue and Red flag of the Republic of Haiti.
It was not until Jan. 1, 1804, that Haiti officially declared independence from France, becoming the first free state in the Caribbean liberated and governed by its former enslaved.
Haitians around the world celebrate Haitian Flag Day, expressing their national pride, honoring the forefathers of the nation, and replenishing their resolve for Haiti’s future in the face of their ancestors’ tremendous and unique accomplishments.
