Your search

Filatelistička izložba Zmajevci u filateliji upriličena je kao dio predstavljanja zajedničkog izdanja poštanskih maraka Hrvatske pošte d. d. Zagreb i Hrvatske pošte Mostar d. o. o. u povodu 1100 godina Hrvatskog Kraljevstva. Izložba je izvorno postavljena u Zmajskoj dvorani u Kuli nad Kamenitim vratima, sjedištu Družbe „Braća Hrvatskoga Zmaja“ gdje je održana svečanost predstavljanja zajedničkog izdanja maraka 23. svibnja 2025. godine. Ovom prigodom izložba gostuje po prvi puta izvan Zagreba. Izložba prikazuje marke i filatelističke objekte Republike Hrvatske, ali i nekih drugih zemalja, kao i prethodnih poštanskih uprava na prostoru Hrvatske, a koji prikazuju portrete i radove članova Družbe, marke koje su dizajnirali članovi Družbe, te koje se na neki drugi način izravno odnose na djelovanje Družbe „Braća Hrvatskoga Zmaja“ od njezine uspostave 1905. do zabrane 1946. godine te nakon obnove 1990. godine. Družba tako ove godine obilježava ne samo veliki jubilej 1100. obljetnice Hrvatskoga Kraljevstva, enogo i svoje dvije godišnjice – 120 godina osnivanja i 35 godina obnove. Tim trima obljetnicama Družba je ove godine posvetila i svoj tri izdanja dragovoljnih doplatnih maraka (tzv. „pepeljuga“) kojima prikuplja sredstva za obilježavanje obljetnica. The philatelic exhibition Dragons in Philately was organized as part of the presentation of the joint issue of postage stamps of the Croatian Post d. d. Zagreb and the Croatian Post Mostar d. o. o. on the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of the Croatian Kingdom. The exhibition was originally set up in the Dragon Hall in the Tower above the Stone Gate, the headquarters of the Society of the Brothers of the Croatian Dragon, where the ceremony of presenting the joint issue of stamps was held on May 23, 2025. On this occasion, the exhibition is visiting for the first time outside of Zagreb. The exhibition presents stamps and philatelic objects from the Republic of Croatia, as well as some other countries, as well as previous postal administrations in Croatia, which depict portraits and works of Society members, stamps designed by Society members, and which in some other way directly relate to the activities of the Society of the Brothers of the Croatian Dragon from its establishment in 1905 to its ban in 1946 and after its restoration in 1990. This year, the Society is not only celebrating the great jubilee of the 1100th anniversary of the Croatian Kingdom, but also its two anniversaries – 120 years of its foundation and 35 years of its restoration. The Society has dedicated its three issues of voluntary surcharge stamps (so-called "Cinderellas") to these three anniversaries, with which it is raising funds to mark the anniversaries.

Short biographies of the article authors for Raven, volume 32.

On November 8, 1860, two days after Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the Young Men’s Southern Rights Club in Savannah, Georgia, spread a banner across the Nathanael Greene Monument in Johnson Square. The top of it read: “Our Motto: Southern Rights and the Equality of the States”. Beneath, a rattlesnake twisted above the words “Don’t Tread On Me”. Thousands gathered around the banner to cheer pro-secession speeches, and as reports from Savannah spread nationwide, secessionists raised similar flags throughout the South. Although the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag had symbolized the American colonies’ unified resolve during the colonial era, by the 1860s its message proved so popular among secessionists, the Alabama Beacon referred to it as “the Flag of the Southern Confederacy” while The Morning Democrat in Davenport, Iowa, described the rattlesnake and ”Don’t Tread on Me” pairing as “the Southern Coat of Arms”. Within a year, Unionists were steadily countering with illustrations of rattlers being stomped, stabbed, and eaten by eagles. Northern poets emphasized Jesus’s words in Luke 10:19 (KJV): “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents.” By the end of 1862 Confederates had lowered their rattlesnake flags and embraced the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Today, most Americans have forgotten the two-year iconographic battle that Unionists fought against the “rattlesnake lords”. This article uses 19th-century newspapers, supplemented with magazines, books, illustrations, and poetry, to tell the full story of this overlooked episode in American history.

The paucity of actual flags in Judaism, despite multiple scriptural and liturgical references, is an anomaly. We review the role of flags in Jewish texts and history, noting the connection between flag-waving and the announcement of the messianic era. This connection, a difficult subject for Jews in the context of Christianity’s enthusiastic adoption of flags, may explain the anomaly. The exception to Judaism’s flag taboo is the minor holiday of Simchat Torah, when children wave flags in a celebratory procession. The origin of this folk custom is obscure and unattested in rabbinic literature, but it appears to date to the 17th century, around the time of the Judaism’s largest messianic outbreak. We hypothesize that Simchat Torah flag-waving arose as a circumscribed indulgence of an otherwise prohibited activity, and that over subsequent centuries this meaning became less intelligible. Judaism’s association between flags and messianism, and the consequent flag-waving taboo, persist to this day. This makes the Simchat Torah flag a Tylorian “survival”, an intact but unintelligible custom.

The world of vexillology has seen two important debates in recent years. The first debate concerns the proper scope of vexillology, in particular whether it should be defined essentially as the “scientific” or “scholarly” study of flags. The second debate concerns the usefulness or desirability of efforts such as Ted Kaye’s criteria for “good flags” and “bad flags” as the primary guides to proper flag design. This paper considers and connects both questions. It argues that most vexillological work is not “scholarly” in the sense that term has come to be understood, but that this is just fine. Nevertheless, to the extent that vexillology does aspire to be a serious scholarly enterprise, the most promising scholarly model for that enterprise is not history or sociology (though a good deal of important historical and sociological work about flags has been done and remains to be done), but aesthetic criticism—art, architecture, literature, music, and the like. But if that’s true, then we need to welcome a rich set of aesthetic, critical, conversations. And that conversation must go way beyond the limits of a single pamphlet.

Flag-related scholarship takes place in many disciplines and is published in many places, beyond those sponsored by NAVA or other members of the International Federation of Vexillological Associations (FIAV). Periodically* Raven provides a bibliography of these works to call attention to the breadth and depth of vexillology (by this or any other name). Although numerous on-line collections have been consulted, this list is certainly not comprehensive. Nevertheless, hopefully it gives a sense of the many aspects of flags, their effects and uses, and how much more there is to be known.