Tricolor Ribbon

The Tricolor Ribbon also known as the Republican Ribbon is a civistic and patriotic symbol in the widest possible use in the Republic of Guntreland, symbolizing national pride and loyalty to the Republic, its Constitution and laws. It is a thread made of silk, cotton or other material in a pattern of three horizontal stripes: black, silver and white.

Meaning

Three equal horizontal lines, black, silver and white, together form the official flag of the Republic of Guntreland. They represent the three powers defined by the Constitution united in the National Assembly: legislative, executive and judicial, as well as the three characteristics of the Republic: free, natural and based on Virtue.

Origin

The tricolor black-silver-white ribbon has been in use since the first day of the Republic in the secret sphere, since it framed all the proclamations of the Republic that appeared in places under royalist administration, including the First Proclamation on the Establishment of the Republic. As a clothing detail, taken from the proclamations, it became a symbol of recognition of the Republicans very early in the first months of the Underground Republic.

Ways of wearing and other use

Republicans of Guntreland most often wear a tricolor ribbon tied around the hand with which they write. In the Republic of Guntreland, liberty trees, statues, lecterns, furniture, rifle bayonets and other weapons, as well as the ears and tails of pets and animals in the service of the Republic, are usually decorated with the tricolor ribbon. The relics of the Republic, which are kept in the Pavilion of Immortality, as well as the printing press in Loransburg on which the first proclamation on the founding of the Republic of Guntreland was printed, on the first day of the first year of the Republican Era, are decorated with tricolor ribbons. Some Republicans, notably Citizen Buckholz from the Judicial Committee of the National Assembly, also tie their hair with a tricolor ribbon.

Tricolor ribbons with the blood of a patriot who fell wearing them are considered extremely sacred objects in the Republic, and the government does not prevent the sale of ribbons as such, considering it positive that the people adopt such an object as a value and even a status symbol.

Mandatory use

National Representatives of Guntreland are obliged to wear at least one piece of clothing in the colors of the flag of the Republic at all times during the session, which is often precisely the Republican ribbon. Members of the Parliamentary and Constitutional Guard are obliged to wear a Republican ribbon as armband when on duty, and in the case of the latter, since there are often not enough uniforms for its members, they can sometimes be recognized precisely by the armband (which is not always easy, however, due to the prevalence of wearing the tricolor armband among Guntreland Republicans).

The tricolor ribbon is also a mandatory part of the naturalization ritual of naturalized Guntrelandians, to whom a civil servant ties it to their arm after they take the oath.

Although ordinary citizens are not obliged to wear a tricolor ribbon on every occasion, it often happens that a Guntrelandite citizen who goes out in public without this garment is showered with exclamations of "Boo!"

Desecration

Intentionally burning of the tricolor ribbon, as well as the flag of the Republic of Guntreland, is considered high treason of the Republic (if done by a citizen), or act of war against Guntreland (if done by a foreigner), and is punished by annihilation of the perpetrator. The Henscherists support the interpretation of the Republican Code , according to which any mockery of these symbols should be treated in that same way; according to other interpretations, mocking the flag is an ordinary civil crime punishable by imprisonment or exile, and according to others, it falls under the natural freedom of expression, which should not be punished.

The Zerocolor

Archqueen Karolina-Louise often points out that from a scientific point of view it is wrong to call the Republican tricolor a tricolor, because neither black, nor gray, nor white are real colors, so she half-jokingly calls it the zerocolor.

Usage outside of Guntreland

In the absolute monarchies of the congress system, wearing the Guntreland tricolor is considered treason and severely punished. Even so, during the reign of Ferdinand II, the composer Anton Zerlich , then a student of the Royal Conservatory of Music and at that time an ardent Henscherian, secretly wore a Republican ribbon under his purple livery.