Symbols
The flag of Sussex consists of six gold martlets, or heraldic swallows, on a blue background, blazoned as Azure, six martlets or. Officially recognised by the Flag Institute on 20 May 2011, its design is based on the heraldic shield of Sussex that first appeared in an atlas by John Speed in 1622. The significance of the six martlets may be to represent the traditional six sub-divisions of the county known as rapes. It may also be a canting reference to the title of the historic leading Sussex family, the Earls of Arundel, seated at Arundel Castle in the county, as the French for swallow is hirondelle.
Sussex by the Sea is regarded as the unofficial anthem of Sussex; it was composed by William Ward-Higgs in 1907, perhaps originally from the lyrics of Rudyard Kipling's poem entitled Sussex. Adopted by the Royal Sussex Regiment and popularised in World War I, it is sung at celebrations across the county, including those at Lewes Bonfire, and at sports matches, including those of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club and Sussex County Cricket Club.
The county day, called Sussex Day, is celebrated on 16 June, the same day as the feast day of St Richard of Chichester, Sussex's patron saint, whose shrine at Chichester Cathedral was an important place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.
Sussex's motto, We wunt be druv, is a Sussex dialect expression meaning 'we will not be pushed around' and reflects the traditionally independent nature of Sussex men and women. The round-headed rampion, also known as the 'Pride of Sussex', was adopted as Sussex's county flower in 2002.
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Famous quotes containing the word symbols:
“For all symbols are fluxional; all language is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries and horses are, for conveyance, not as farms and houses are, for homestead.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Luckless is the country in which the symbols of procreation are the objects of shame, while the agents of destruction are honored! And yet you call that member your pudendum, or shameful part, as if there were anything more glorious than creating life, or anything more atrocious than taking it away.”
—Savinien Cyrano De Bergerac (1619–1655)
“My image is a statement of the symbols of the harsh, impersonal products and brash materialistic objects on which America is built today. It is a projection of everything that can be bought and sold, the practical but impermanent symbols that sustain us.”
—Andy Warhol (1928–1987)