The official design of the flag of El Salvador was established by the Law of National Symbols passed by the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador on 14 September 1972. There are three versions of the flag: the Bandera Magna (Spanish for “Great Flag”), the “flag for use in public buildings and offices” (“bandera de uso en edificios y oficinas públicas“), and the “parade flag” (“bandera de desfiles“).[1]
The flag’s base design consists of a horizontal triband of blue-white-blue. The top and bottom blue stripes symbolize the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean; El Salvador does not have a coast on the latter, but it is intended to represent Central America as a whole.[2][3] The center white stripe symbolizes peace. On the Bandera Magna, the national coat of arms is located in the center of the white stripe. Its official dimensions are 3.35 meters (11.0 ft) long by 1.89 meters (6.2 ft) tall (a ratio of 189:335),[4] and each stripe is 0.63 meters (2.1 ft) tall.[2] On the “flag for use in public buildings and offices”, the coat of arms is replaced with the national motto of “Dios, Union, Libertad” (Spanish for “God, Union, Liberty”) in gold capital letters,[2] and the flag’s dimensions are 1 meter (3.3 ft) long and 60 centimeters (24 in) tall (a ratio of 3:5). The “parade flag” is identical to the prior flag except its dimensions are 1.45 meters (4.8 ft) long and 0.9 meters (3.0 ft) tall (a ratio of 18:29).