Last modified: 2025-09-13 by ian macdonald
Keywords: northern mariana islands | oceania | cup | star | wreath | commonwealth ports authority |
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image by
Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025
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The flag of Northern Mariana Islands consists of three symbols: a white star
representing the United States, a gray latte stone representing the Chamorro
people, and a multi-colored mwarmwar (floral wreath) representing the
Carolinians. The mwarmwar is made from the green ylang-ylang (langilang;
Cananga odorata), the white plumeria (flores mayo or seyúr; Plumeria
alba), the red peacock flower (angagha; Caesalpinia pulcherrima),
and the pink Pacific basil (teibwo; Ocimum tenuiflorum). Its dark blue
background represents the Pacific Ocean and the Mariana Trench.
Flag ratio
is 20:39. The current version adopted on 4th July 1995.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Northern_Mariana_Islands
Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025
It seems that the flag was changed some time in 1994 or early 1995. Gerard van der Vaart told me that Mr. Smith shows a color copy he obtained from the American factory which produces the flag for the Northern Marianas administration. In practice the flag is made by this factory in proportions 2:3 and 3:5. It seems that there was an intermediate version of the flag with a bit different wreath.
Željko Heimer, 8 March 1996
Dorling Kindersley Pocket Book says:
"The original flag was adopted in 1972, but has undergone several modifications, including the addition of the flower wreath."Smith (1980) says "Officially adopted 31 March 1972" and shows the first design (without wreath).
The district adopted the flag on 31 March 1972; the territory adopted the flag on 4 July 1976 (same flag), and modified the design in 1981.
Jaume Ollé, 5 April 1999
The constitution defines the flag (Article XXII), but there is no illustration
nor color specification.
https://cnmilaw.org/cons.php#gsc.tab=0
This page gives color
specification in Hex values, but illustrates a previous design of flag:
https://usflags.design/northern-mariana-islands/
Other sources for
colors:
The Olympic Flag Manuals don’t illustrate this flag, because
Northern Mariana Islands is not member of IOC or IPC.
The French Navy
Books give an illustration, but there is no any color specification.
Vexilla Mundi gives
colors in Pantone system: PMS 286C (blue), PMS White, PMS 421C (grey), PMS 1788C
(red), PMS 102C (yellow), PMS 239C (lilac), PMS 153C (brown), PMS 382C (light
green), PMS 369C (green), and PMS Black.
Wikipedia refers to
the constitutional convention, illustrates the flag, but doesn’t give color
specification.
Flag Color Codes gives the following
color values:
Blue: Hex #0033A1, RGB 0-51-161, CMYK 100-68-0-37, Pantone 286C,
RAL 5005
White:
Hex #FFFFFF, RGB 255-255-255, CMYK 0-0-0-0, Pantone and RAL
N/A
Grey: Hex #B1B4B3, RGB 177-180-179, CMYK 2-0-1-29, Pantone Cool Gray 5 C,
RAL 7038
Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025
The official flag of the Governor's Office is the CNMI (Commonwealth of
Northern Mariana Islands) flag.
Jennifer E. Castro
Communications Manager, PIO
Office of the Governor
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
13 December 2003
image by Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025
[Click on seal for larger image.]
The seal (which also appears on the flag) consists of three symbols: a white
star representing the USA, a grey latte stone representing the Chamorro people
and a multi-coloured floral wreath representing the Carolinians.
Christopher Southworth, 7 October 2024
Images of seal:
https://www.commerce.gov.mp/
https://www.nga.org/governor/gov-arnold-palacios/
https://www.facebook.com/photo
Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025
image
by Jaume Olle, 13 September 2008
A photo shown on
Flickr taken
by “50storms” (Michiko Igarashi) on 11 Jun 2006 is captioned “In front of the
Rota Airport. Top: flag of the USA Left: flag of
Rota (I guess) Right: flag of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas
Islands”. The yellow flag bears a black-and-white seal in the centre.
Jan Mertens, 2 April 2008
I would say it is the flag of the Commonwealth Ports Authority, which runs
Saipan Intl. Airport, Port of Saipan, Tinian Intl. Airport, Port of Tinian, Rota
Intl. Airport, and Rota West Harbor. See its seal, obviously very similar to the
one on the yellow flag of the picture, at
http://www.cpa.gov.mp/ and especially, for a black and white picture of the
seal, at
http://www.cpa.gov.mp/rotarpt.asp.
Olivier Touzeau, 2 April 2008
The logo shows an airplane (modern small jet) and a ship (modern cargo) above
and extending the same element as on the national flag (a cup?), depicted as on
its previous version.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 16 May 2008
I visited Northern Mariana Commonwealth Ports Authority in Saipan Airport on
Sep 12 2008. The supervisor says the official color is orange and the logo color
is blue in white disc and the flag proportion is 1: 2. Due to tropical heavy
rains and strong sunshine the flag easily loses orange color and it can look
pale yellow.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 13 September 2008
Images of flag:
https://www.shutterstock.com/hu/image
https://www.postguam.com/news/cnmi
Image of emblem:
https://www.facebook.com/photo
Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025