- Lábaro
The Lábaro is a modern interpretation of an ancient military standard (called "Cantabrum") of the
Cantabri people from pre-RomanIberum . It consists of a purple cloth on which there is what would be called in heraldry a "saltire voided throughout" made up of curved lines, with knobs at the end of each line.Etymologically, the word comes from "(p)lab-" which means "to speak" in a number of
Celtic languages , many of which have derivatives. For example, in Welsh "llafar" means "speech", "language", "voice". Ancient Cornish and Breton have "lavar", "word", and ancient Irish has "labrad": "language", "speech". InLatin , the lábaro became known as the Cantabrian LabarumFact|date=February 2008.Looking to support his theories, the Basque Sabino Arana invented another ethimology for Labaro in the XIX century. He proposed that Labaro came from the Basque words "Lau buru" meaning "four heads", lau "four" and buru "heads", "four ends" or "four summits". He designed a new triskelion with four knobs. The real "Lábaro" has four open arcs and no heads. There are also many archeological stones with the "Lábaro" symbol in Cantabria regium while none in the Basque region. There are also several triskelions in the Cantabria regiom but only with five arms.
This type of standard and its variants were well distributed among the
Celt ic peoples, as is demonstrated by thetriumphal arch of Orange, France. Its display is connected with the ancient Celtic symbol of thetriskelion , and its religious symbolism is related tosun worship .Through the
Cantabrian Wars and the conquering of the Cantabri by the Romans in19 AD , theRoman legions adopted from them thesolar symbol ism of the twin crosses and lunar symbols, probably by the incorporation of Cantabrian auxiliary troops, or for the mere pride of having conquered the fierce people after years of war.Today, certain social and political groups in modern Spanish autonomous community of Cantabria advocate the use of this ancient standard instead of the current flag
See also
*
Lauburu
*Fasces
*Labrys
*Christian symbolism
*Christogram
*Labarum External links
* [http://es.geocities.com/orgenomescos/articulos/labarolauburu.htm History of the Labaro, in Spanish]
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