Flag of Hawaii

A gift from a British captain

Hawaii’s flag story begins in 1793, when the British explorer George Vancouver visited the islands and gave a Union Jack to Kamehameha I, who was then uniting the islands under his rule. For years the British flag flew as Hawaii’s flag.

Around 1816, on the advice of Western advisers, Kamehameha’s flag was changed: the Union Jack stayed in the corner, and red, white and blue stripes were added to the field, giving Hawaii its own national flag.

Eight stripes for eight islands

In 1843 a British naval officer briefly occupied Hawaii and took down the Hawaiian flag. When sovereignty was restored a few months later, Kamehameha III set the number of stripes at eight, one for each of the main islands: Hawaiʻi, Maui, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Niʻihau and Kahoʻolawe.

A flag that outlived its kingdom

When the monarchy was overthrown in 1893, the Stars and Stripes was raised over the islands, but the Republic of Hawaii, founded in 1894, went back to using the old national flag. When the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898, the flag became the flag of the territory, and in 1959 it became the state flag, unchanged. The Hawaii constitution makes the Hawaiian flag the state flag, and the current legal description was enacted in 1990.

What the flag shows

• Eight stripes. Horizontal stripes alternating white, red and blue from the top, for the eight main islands.
• The jack. In the upper corner by the staff, a blue field with the red and white crosses of the British Union Flag. By law it is half the height of the flag and seven-sixteenths of its length.
• Proportions. The flag is twice as long as it is high.

The colors have no official meaning. They most likely reflect the flags of the foreign powers whose ships first visited Hawaii, Britain and the United States.

Flag etiquette

The 1990 law also sets rules for the flag’s use. It flies beneath the US flag when both share a halyard. It must not be used to cover or drape a speaker’s platform. On a casket it is placed with the jack at the head, over the left shoulder. And it is folded lengthwise twice and then into triangles until only the jack shows.