Vietnam Flag: Meaning, History, Colors & Pictures

Vietnam’s national flag is a red rectangle with one yellow five-pointed star at its center. Its height-to-length ratio is 2:3, and one star point faces upward. The design developed from the red-star flag used in 1940, was nationally adopted in 1945, revised in 1955, and retained by reunified Vietnam in 1976.

Vietnam’s flag is commonly called cờ đỏ sao vàng, meaning red flag with a yellow star. Quốc kỳ means national flag, while cờ Tổ quốc refers to the flag of the homeland. The flag represents the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and has one centered, upright, five-pointed yellow star.

The flag has a bright red background and a bright yellow star. This edition uses red #DA251D and yellow #FFFF00 consistently in its downloadable artwork. These are editorial screen references. The official guidance reviewed names the colors but does not establish these HEX values as a mandatory national digital standard.

Vietnamese official explanations connect the red field with revolutionary struggle and sacrifice, and the yellow star with the unity of the people. These meanings describe the flag’s historical and political context. They are distinct from the constitutional description, which specifies the red rectangle and centered yellow five-pointed star without listing symbolic interpretations.

A common official explanation associates the five points with intellectuals, peasants, workers, merchants and soldiers united in the nation. The Vietnamese grouping is sĩ, nông, công, thương, binh. This is a symbolic interpretation of social unity, not a map of five provinces, a count of ethnic groups, or five separate stars.

Vietnam’s national flag has a height-to-length ratio of 2:3. Article 13 of the Constitution states that the shorter dimension is two thirds of the longer dimension. A flag 60 centimeters high is therefore 90 centimeters long. The clean artwork uses a 900-by-600 construction grid and a 9,000-by-6,000-pixel PNG.

The distance from the star’s center to each outer tip is one fifth of the flag’s length. On the 900-unit-long reference, that radius is 180 units. The surrounding construction circle is therefore 360 units across, or three fifths of the flag’s height. The visible star does not fill that circle’s square.

The star’s center lies at the intersection of the flag’s diagonals. In the 900-by-600 grid, that point is (450, 300). Center the star’s construction circle there, rather than centering its visible bounding box. An upright five-pointed star extends farther above its center than below it, so its red margins are unequal.

Draw a 3-by-2 red rectangle, locate the intersection of its diagonals, and center a five-pointed yellow star there. Set the outer radius to one fifth of the rectangle’s length and point one tip straight upward. Use a regular pentagram outline with straight edges; the current guidance excludes swollen or rounded star arms.

The red-star flag is associated with the Nam Kỳ uprising of November 23, 1940. It became the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s national flag in 1945, received a revised star specification in 1955, and was retained by reunified Vietnam in 1976. These stages explain its development more accurately than a single undifferentiated adoption date.

September 5, 1945 is the date of Decree No. 5 establishing the red flag with a five-pointed yellow star as the national flag of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The star was revised on November 30, 1955. On July 2, 1976, the reunified National Assembly retained the design for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Decree 249-SL of November 30, 1955 changed the star’s prescribed contour to straight lines instead of the earlier curved treatment. The red field and central yellow star remained. The accompanying comparison reconstructs the 1945 annex’s radial measurements beside the modern regular star; it does not claim to trace every historical cloth flag exactly.

Nguyễn Hữu Tiến is widely credited with creating the red-star flag, including in Vietnam’s Embassy account. The authorship has also been debated, with Lê Quang Sô proposed in historical discussions. This page identifies the common attribution without presenting the debate as settled or confusing the original design with this edition’s newly constructed digital artwork.

September 2 is Vietnam’s National Day, marking Hồ Chí Minh’s declaration of independence in 1945. The red-star flag is closely associated with that event and its commemorations. National Day is distinct from the September 5 flag decree, the November 1955 design revision, and the formal reunification decisions of July 1976.

On July 2, 1976, the unified National Assembly adopted the country name Socialist Republic of Vietnam and retained the red flag with a yellow star as the national flag. The Vietnam National Museum of History records these decisions. This formal state decision is distinct from the events of April 30, 1975.

Article 13 of the Constitution defines the red rectangle, 2:3 proportions and centered yellow five-pointed star. Ministry guidance 3420/HD-BVHTTDL, dated October 2, 2012, gives construction and display details. This page checks the Constitution’s 2025 consolidated text and distinguishes that current article number from the older Article 141 cited in historical guidance.

Use the complete flag with an upright star, sound fabric and the correct proportions. Ministry guidance rejects damaged, faded or badly creased flags and describes appropriate placement at institutions and events. Display times depend on the type of institution and the relevant announcement; one timetable should not be applied indiscriminately to every household or occasion.

Official guidance describes outdoor flag display for major holidays, political events, traditional Tết celebrations and occasions announced by central or local authorities. September 2 is National Day. A Ministry reply in 2026 still referred to this framework while considering a proposal concerning July 27; the proposal itself was not a newly enacted nationwide display requirement.

The Ministry’s guidance calls for national flags displayed together to have equal size and equal height, with their proper designs preserved. Detailed placement depends on the ceremony and the participating countries. Do not infer a universal left-to-right order from a photograph, since the observer’s viewpoint and the event’s protocol both affect how positions are described.

Article 10 of Decree 105/2012/NĐ-CP prescribes a mourning flag with a black ribbon, raised to two thirds of the pole’s height and tied so it does not fly freely. The ribbon is one tenth of the flag’s height in width and one flag-length long. The 2025 amending decree leaves this article unchanged.

In the standard horizontal display, one star point faces straight upward, toward the top of the flagstaff. The two lower points form the bottom pair. Turning the complete flag upside down changes this arrangement, even though the field remains red. The orientation graphic labels the inverted example as incorrect for the standard upright reference.

Yes, the national design looks the same from either side when the flag is held upright. Official guidance requires the yellow stars on its two faces to coincide. A left-to-right mirror leaves the centered upright star unchanged because it has vertical reflection symmetry. This does not mean that turning the flag upside down is equivalent.

The complete upright Vietnam flag has reflection symmetry across its vertical centerline. It does not have horizontal reflection symmetry or 180-degree rotational symmetry. The isolated regular star has fivefold rotational symmetry, but the surrounding 2:3 rectangle removes that symmetry from the complete flag. Always specify whether a symmetry claim concerns the star or the whole design.

A complete flag can be shown in a rotated educational illustration, but rotating it also turns the star’s point relative to the page. The sources reviewed do not establish a separate universal vertical-banner template. The supplied quarter-turn graphic is labeled as geometry only; official installations should follow the applicable display instructions instead of treating it as approved protocol.

No. Vietnam’s national flag consists of a red field and one yellow star. The national emblem is a separate constitutional symbol that also includes rice ears, part of a cogwheel and the country’s name. A red flag bearing a hammer and sickle is a party flag, not an alternative version of the national flag.

Vietnam has one large yellow star centered on a red field. China has five yellow stars, with one larger star and four smaller stars grouped toward the upper hoist. Both use red and yellow, but their star counts and placement are different. Color alone is therefore insufficient for identifying either national flag.

The yellow flag with three horizontal red stripes is associated with the former Republic of Vietnam, commonly called South Vietnam, and remains meaningful in some Vietnamese diaspora communities. It is historically and culturally distinct from the current national flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Identify its context rather than presenting the two designs as interchangeable.

The Vietnam flag emoji is 🇻🇳. It consists of the regional indicator symbols V and N, encoded as U+1F1FB and U+1F1F3. Unicode identifies the sequence as flag: Vietnam. Its appearance depends on the platform, so use the supplied SVG or PNG when exact proportions, star geometry and consistent colors matter.

The clean PNG measures 9,000 by 6,000 pixels, or 54 million pixels. At 300 pixels per inch, it prints at 30 by 20 inches, approximately 76.2 by 50.8 centimeters. The SVG scales without a fixed pixel limit. Keep the complete 2:3 rectangle and obtain a color proof for the intended production process.

The page provides 24 gallery subjects, each in SVG and PNG, including a clean flag, color references, construction diagrams, history panels and display explanations. A separate 1,200-by-630 social card is also included. Use the clean master for the national flag itself and the labeled illustrations for lessons, articles and reference material.