The Hawaiian flag looks like the British flag. Does the flag stand for anything?

-- Val Morim (beryloflaffs@hahahah.net), January 23, 1999

Answers

The eight stripes represent the 8 main islands.

-- Roy Inouye (roy@bothi.com), January 23, 1999.

I learned a lot about the Hawaiian flag when I visited the "punchbowl".

-- Anne Higgins (rhiggins@wilmington.net), January 24, 1999.

the eight main lands

-- Diana Duran (sandramack26@aol.com), November 08, 2000.

The Union Jack appears on the Hawaiian flag because the Hawaiian Islands were part of the British Empire, discovered and claimed for Britain by Captain Cook in the 1700's. The British called the islands the Sandwich Island, having been named after Lord Sandwich by Captain Cook.I am not certain but I believe the U.S.A. took possesion of the Hawaiian Islands around 1898.

-- Chuck Ludovissy (fubijar@tns.net), December 10, 2000.

The eight alternating white, red and blue stripes represent the eight islands of Hawaii. The British Union Jack represents Hawaii's historical relationship with Great Britian as its protectorate. It also represents a stylized puela (a triangular standard laying across two crossed spears called an alia) which is the symbol of the Hawaiian ali'i. The Hawaiian flag previous to 1845 differed only in the amount of stripes, which was formerly "seven", and also the arranging of the colors. Previous to 1845 the white stripe was at the bottom instead of the present position of at the top. The person accredited with the designing of the new flag, which was unfurled before the 1845 Legislative Assembly, was Captain Hunt of H.B.M.S. (Her British Majesty's Ship) Baselisk. The Union Jack represented the friendly relationship between England and Hawai'i, and also noting that it was England and France that formally recognized the Hawaiian Kingdom as an Independent State and admitted her into the Family of Nations on November 28, 1843.

-- Chad Harrington (res0vfbz@verizon.net), April 30, 2003.