4 June (ERR)

The national blue-black-and-white flag of Estonia has its 128th birthday today, with a number of events marking the occasion across the country.

At sunrise today, representatives of the Defense League's girls’ organisation Kodutütred, girl guides and boy scouts hoisted the tricolor atop Pikk Hermann tower in Tallinn's Toompea hill. Speaker of Parliament Ene Ergma delivered a speech during the event in which she emphasised that Estonians have the responsibility of maintaining the value of the flag as it symbolises everything that the nation is striving for or has already achieved.

The blue-black-and-white tricolor was originally conceived as the flag of the Estonian Students’ Society of the University of Tartu and was first consecrated at the pastorate of the southern town of Otepää on 4 June 1884. Estonian poet Martin Lipp has famously interpreted the flag's colors as follows: blue stands for the sky; black symbolises the soil and a dark past; and white represents hope.

A parade will also be held in the flag's birthplace, Otepää, where the pageant will move from the Town Hall to the pastorate. The alumni of the Estonian Students' Society will also hold a commemorative ceremony at the local cemetery followed by a memorial service at St. Mary's Church.

For more information on the flag and other Estonian state symbols: http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/country/the-state--structure-and-symbols.html