Southern Finland province (Finland)

I can't say anything general for all provinces – old or new – but having lived for a long time in Hämeenlinna (in Swedish: Tavastehus) which used to be the capital of the old Hämeen lääni (Tavastehus län / Häme [=Tavastia] Province) and which now is the capital of Etelä-Suomen lääni (Södra Finlands län / Province of Southern Finland) I have observed that the provincial government there is flying a special pennant during summer time.

The old pennant was w-r-w-r-w where the red "stripes" actually only were a kind of fimbration of the middle white stripe (they were hard to distinguish; the pennant looked all white). The pennant ended in a triple swallow-tale. The entire coat of arms of the province, including the ducal crown, was placed a bit down from the hoist. I must say the design did not look very professional, nor convincing.

After the provincial reform the provincial government of Southern Finland ordered a new swallow-tailed white-blue pennant with the coat of arms placed at the hoist as a banner-of-arms-like square without the crown. I learned from an official of the pr.gov. that three such pennants had been ordered, one for each "service point" of the provincial government (i.e. Hämeenlinna, Kouvola and Helsinki – the latter used to be the capitals of the old provinces Kymen lääni and Uudenmaan lääni, "degraded" to service points due to the reform), but I am not sure if they are really used there. I have never seen (square) banners of arms being flown by any provincial government.
Marco Pribilla, 12 March 2001

Editor's note: The flag is put together of the arms of Tavastia, Karelia and Uusimaa.

Official blazon: (Not yet presented)

The following municipalities are located in this province. At this time we only have information available for Helsinki