Saint Kitts and Nevis (original) (raw)

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Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis

image by Zoltan Horvath, 10 September 2024

The flag

The Album 2000 [pay00] says:

1. National Flag. 2:3

Green-red flag divided by a rising black diagonal bend fimbriated with yellow bearing two white five-pointed stars. Judging from the image in the Album and using 1/20 of hoist as unit, the width of the bend is 5 and fimbriations 1 unit each. The stars are inscribed in circle of 4 in diameter. Distance of the centers of the circles is 16 units.
Željko Heimer, 01 January 2003

Flag adopted 19 September 1983, coat of arms adopted 16 February 1967 (motto changed 19 September 1983).
Nozomi Kariyasu

It is commonly stated that the two stars symbolize the two islands, but in fact they stand for hope and liberty (source: [cra90] and [poe90]) In addition, Eve Devereux’s _Identifying flags_[dev94] gives further that green is for fertility, red for the liberation struggle, black for the African heritage and yellow for sunshine. The white stars express hope and freedom.
António Martins, 20 May 1998

The national flag of St. Kitts & Nevis features green for our fertile lands, yellow for our year-round sun-shine, black for our African heritage, and red for our struggle from slavery through colonialism to independence. It also displays two white stars on a black diagonal bar, symbols of hope and liberty.
Dov Gutterman, 24 June 1999, quotingstkittsnevis.net

November 1985 flag of St-Kitts-Nevis was changed according_Flagmaster_ 49 [flm] and Vexillinfo 70 [vxf]. The stars are push pointed up. I assume that, if the info is exact, same pattern was reproduced in the ensigns and Nevis flag. Seems that the change, if exist, was shord lived and some days or weeks after, the stars recover their initial position.
Jaume Ollé, 22 January 2000

I was checking what I had on the flag of St Kitts and Nevis, and the answer is 'not a lot'. All I have is a single black/white page stamped by the Prime Minister's Office, Home Affairs Division, and undated.
In the first place, it confirms that the official symbolism is exactly that given by Dov Gutterman. The flag's designer was Miss Edrice Lewis, it was the "winning entry ... chosen from 258 submitted designs" in competition which "closed on 28th February 1983", and "after approval by Cabinet" was sent to the College of Arms in London.
The illustration carries hand-written notes by William Crampton (subsequently checked by myself), and shows a diagonal stripe, fimbriation and stars detailed slightly differently than those shown by ourselves:
On a flag of 100 x 150 units, the diagonal stripe is 30 units wide with a fimbriation of 6 units. The stars with one point towards the base (or if you prefer, the two outer points parallel to the stripe) are contained within circles of 28 units,while the centre-point of the first (circle) is situated 48 units from the hoist, and the second 45 units from the fly - or 48-57-45.
Christopher Southworth, 11 February 2005

"The Sun of Saint Kitts and Nevis", 24 July 2008, names the designer of the national flag as Edrice Lewis-Viechweg, now residing in Connecticut, USA. She taught at the Irish Town Primary School, Basseterre, in 1987, immediately after she left high school, and keeps supporting the school by donating scholastic items to valued students.
Source: http://sunstkitts.com/paper/?asknw=view&asknw=view,view&sun=494418078207132005&an=414034088907242008&ac=Local
The "IslandFlave" website adds that Edrice Lewis, then a student, won the national contest for the flag design, among 258 entries. She is said to have given the official interpretation of the flag.
Source:http://www.islandflave.com/caribbean-flags/st-kitts-nevis-flag.php [We welcome another talented female vexillologist and another successful flag contest!]
Ivan Sache, 29 July 2008

Colour specifications

There is no official source that gives exact colors of the national flag; all sources below provide approximate colors from their documented sources.
Zoltan Horvath, 10 September 2024

The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be.
For St Kitts & Nevis: PMS 355 green, 109 yellow, 032 red and black. The vertical flag is simply the horizontal version turned 90 degrees clockwise.
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012

The Flag Manual - Beijing 2008 gives Pantone colors: PMS 032 (red), PMS 116 (yellow), PMS 347 (green) and PMS Black.

The Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] (Corr. No. 4.) gives approximate colors in Pantone and CMYK systems:
Red: Pantone 186c, CMYK 0-90-80-5
Green: Pantone 355c, CMYK 100-0-90-5
Yellow: Pantone 116c, CMYK 0-10-95-0
Blue: Pantone 300c, CMYK 100-45-0-0

Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12] gives Pantone colors: PMS 355 (green), PMS 109 (yellow), PMS 032 (red), and PMS Black.

The Album des Pavillons 2023 specifies the colors of the flags in three color systems:
Blue: Pantone 300c, CMYK 88-57-0-0, RGB 0-103-198
Red: Pantone 186c, CMYK 10-100-74-2, RGB 210-16-52
Yellow: Pantone 116c, CMYK 0-19-93-0, RGB 255-206-0
Green: Pantone 355c, CMYK 84-12-100-1, RGB 0-149-48

Vexilla Mundi gives colors in Pantone system: PMS 3256C (green), PMS 186C (red), PMS Black, PMS 116C (yellow), and PMS White.

Wikipedia illustrates the flag, and construction details, and gives rendered RGB color values based on Pantone colors published by the Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00]:
Red: RGB 200-16-46, Pantone 186c
Green: RGB 0-151-57, Pantone 355c
Yellow: RGB 255-209-0, Pantone 116c
Black: RGB 0-0-0
White: RGB 255-255-255

Flag Color Codesgives the following color values:
HexRGBCMYKPantoneRAL
Green: Hex #009739, RGB 0-151-57, CMYK 93-0-100-0, Pantone 355, RAL 6037
Yellow: Hex #FFD100, RGB 255-209-0, CMYK 0-5-100-0, Pantone 109, RAL 2007
Black: Hex #000000, RGB 0-0-0, CMYK 0-0-0-100, Pantone Black, RAL 9005
White: Hex #FFFFFF, RGB 255-255-255, CMYK 0-0-0-0, Pantone N/A, RAL N/A
Red: Hex # EF3340, RGB 239-51-64, CMYK 0-90-76-0, Pantone 032, RAL 3024

Zoltan Horvath, 10 September 2024

Construction Sheet

image by Željko Heimer, 13 February 2005

The star can be pointing at once both perpendicular to the diagonal and also toward the bottom, even though the difference in just over 2 degrees. Namely the rotation of the diagonal from the horizontal axis is 33.69� (i.e. ctan(100/150)) while the downpointing star would have to be rotated 36�. I take that the stars are rotated 33.69 that seems to me more appropriate.
The horizontal division of 48-57-45 provides quite nice vertical division as well (top to bottom): 30-38-32. The diameter of 28 gives the stars somewhat larger then we are used to see (I guess).
Željko Heimer, 13 February 2005

Position of the stars

I think that the stars should be directed towards upper hoist (or, more correctly, axes of the stars’ upper points should be perpendicular to the axis of the diagonal stripe)… and some people interprets it as «stars pointing up» while other as «pointing down». In the Czech vexillological periodical_Vexillology_ [vex], even the changes of SKN flags were reported in the 1980s.
Jan Zrzavy, 08 August 2001

Carefully looking at the official illustration again, I can confirm that it definitely shows the stars at 33.69 degrees as Željkoquite rightly surmises. William actually got this right in his handwritten annotations, but wrong on his finished spec (which is what I, without further checking, uncritically followed). In our mutual defence (and as I hope Željkowill agree) the difference is actually very small.and visually almost indistinguishable?
Christopher Southworth, 13 February 2005

I am glad that this is so - it makes my "speculations" of the other ensignsmuch more credible. Anyway, the difference is indeed small and hardly noticable. A bit more noticable in the two other ensigns, as you may see.
Željko Heimer, 13 February 2005

Official name of country

What exactly is the official name of this country now? I know that at one time it consisted of two separate colonies, St Christopher and Nevis, but St Christopher was also called St Kitts (presumably an 18th Century version of the traditional English short form of the name Christopher, i.e., Kitt, which is the version currently used). Then the colonies were merged and apparently the two forms were used interchangeably as St Christopher & Nevis or St Kitts-Nevis. Then for a time during the 1960s/70s Anguilla was attached to the colony and it was known as St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, although the latter was separated after a few years (I believe there was some sort of brouhaha on Anguilla about this, and if I am not mistaken about twenty Metropolitan Police personnel were sent from London to restore order). Has the official name now reverted to St Kitts-Nevis, or is the St Christopher-Nevis form also used interchangeably?
Ron Lahav, 13 February 2005

Article 1 of the constitution of the Federation outlines the official forms of the name:

�The Federation and its territory.
(1) The island of Saint Christopher (which is otherwise known as Saint Kitts) and the island of Nevis shall be a sovereign democratic federal state which may be styled Saint Christopher and Nevis or Saint Kitts and Nevis or the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis or the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.�

Therefore both Christopher and Kitts are official names. It also appears that the abbreviation St. for Saint is de-facto acceptable given it�s use by the government, presumably as using St. or Saint in reference to the name of the country does not Inherently change the full names at all.
Hemendra Bhola, 19 July 2020

Storm flag signals

red pierced black
image by Antonio Martins, 15 Aug 1999

red pennant
image by Antonio Martins, 15 Aug 1999

According to the WMO book [c9h07], St Kitts and Nevis partly use the well-known US signal set:

40a (red pierced black) is «A cautionary warning: possibility of storm or hurricane affecting island».
56a (red pennant): «Winds 28-33 kt.»
41a (double set of red pierced black) is «Definite warning: hurricane will affect island».

(The fourth item of the set i.e. 39a (double set of red pennants) is not used.)
Jan Mertens, 23 March 2008