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Hasvik, Finmark (Norway)

Last modified: 2021-08-25 by christopher oehler
Keywords: hasvik | seagull |
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Commune flag
image by Tomislav Šipek, 22 January 2016
Granted on 13 July 1984.


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About the Flag

Hasvik municipality is situated in Finnmark county.
Hasvik chose a bird common to costal areas, the seagull, for its arms and flag. In the flag, the seagull is shown in white against a blue field. The flag was adopted by Royal resolution dated 13 July 1984.
Jan Oskar Engene, 29 April 2002

Flag of Hasvik is already reported, so here is coat of arms. Administrative center is Breivikbotn.
Source: https://lovdata.no/dokument/OV/forskrift/1984-07-13-1427?q=flagg
Tomislav Šipek, 22 January 2016


Coat of Arms

[COA of Hasvik]
image by Tomislav Šipek, 22 January 2016

Official blazon in Norwegian: "I blått en oppflygende hvit make."
Blazoned in English: "Azure a gull argent rising."
English blazon by Željko Heimer, 30 July 2002

The municipal web site explains that a competition was made in 1983, resulting in 76 designs submitted. Some were forwarded to the State Archives for opinions and eventually three design were made finalists. One with three silver hooks in bend on red, second with yellow ripe cloud-berries on red background and third a silver seagull in blue. When the decision was to be made, the cloudberries were already taken in the mean time by another municipality (was this Nesseby? As far as I understand the Nrwegian approval process, they may have "reserved" the design even if it was approved only in 1986...) and the department was not excited with the hooks, although evaluated as heraldically correct. So, the municipal authorities went for the seagull.
The design was proposed by Martha Gamst from Breivikbotn, and it was further finalized by photographer and designer Arvid Sveen from Vadsø. If I inderstand the saying correctly (and please, let me know if I missed the point) - it is said (in Hasvik) that those who do not like boiled seagull's eggs, it takes a case of Mack beer to eat one seagull's egg. Local inhabitants use to watch seagull behaviour to predict weather.
Željko Heimer, 28 January 2016