National symbols of Latvia

These symbols are seen in official capacities, such as flags, coats of arms, postage stamps, and currency, and in URLs.

The public display of the Nazi swastika and the Soviet hammer and sickle along with other symbols associated with them are now banned in Latvia in 2014.

[citation needed] The national flag of Latvia is a carmine red field with a narrow white stripe in the middle.

The flag was created in 1917, inspired by a 13th-century legend from the Rhymed Chronicle of Livonia that a Latgalian leader was wounded in battle, and the edges of the white sheet in which he was wrapped were stained by his blood with the center stripe of the flag is left unstained.

It was adopted in 1921 along with the national flag, but abolished in 1940 after Soviet occupation started, and officially restored in 1990.