The national flag of Hungary (Magyarország zászlaja) is a horizontal tricolour of red, white and green.

[citation needed] Folklore of the romantic period attributed the colours to virtues: red for strength, white for faithfulness and green for hope.

Alternatively, red for the blood spilled for the fatherland, white for freedom and green for the land, for the pastures of Hungary.

The new constitution, which took effect on 1 January 2012, makes the ex-post interpretation mentioned first official (in the semi-official translation: strength (erő), fidelity (hűség) and hope (remény)).

As described above, the red, white and green tricolour clearly emerged as a sign of national sovereignty during the 1848–1849 revolution against the Habsburgs.

Hungarian volunteers and Émigrés fought for the social movement and wars of Italian unification under the banner for Garibaldi.

A short interlude and exception was the 1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic, which lasted for four-and-a-half months; it used a solid red banner.

During the anti-Soviet uprising in 1956, revolutionaries cut out the Hammer and Wheat emblem and used the resulting tricolour with a hole in the middle as the symbol of the revolution.

In 1957, after the revolution was defeated by the Soviet Red Army, the new government created a "new" coat of arms, which however was never officially put onto the flag.