Québec's flag

For the adult reading along

A little more to discover

The fleurdelisé descends from the Carillon flag, imagined by Abbé Elphège Filiatrault, parish priest of Saint-Jude, and first raised over his rectory on September 26, 1902. On January 21, 1948, the Québec government made it the official flag by order in council; that same afternoon it replaced the Union Jack atop the central tower of the Parliament Building. The present flag has four upright fleurs-de-lis. Flag Day was established by decree in 1998 and confirmed in 1999 by Québec’s Act respecting the flag and emblems; it also recognizes the yellow birch, the blue flag iris and the snowy owl as emblems. Some selections came earlier: the snowy owl has been the avian emblem since 1987.

For a child, a symbol is approached through its repeated shapes: where is the same flower? how does the cross divide the rectangle? The flag is blue, the cross and the fleurs-de-lis are white. You can also talk about the places where your child has noticed it.