A saltire, or Saint Andrew's Cross, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross (☓, unicode sign U+2613) or letter ex (x). Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross.
It appears in numerous flags, including those of Scotland and Jamaica, and other coats of arms and seals. A variant, also appearing on many past and present flags and symbols, is the Cross of Burgundy flag.
A warning sign in the shape of a saltire is also used to indicate the point at which a railway line intersects a road at a level crossing.
Anne Roes detected the symbol, which often appears with balls in the quadrants formed by the arms of the chi-cross, in standards represented on coins of Persepolis, and she suggested that early Christians endorsed its solar symbolism as appropriate to Christ, and suggested "although it cannot be proved, that in the white saltire of St. Andrew we still have a reminiscence of the old standard of the Persepolitan kingdom."
When two or more saltires appear, they are usually blazoned as couped.
A saltorel is a narrow saltire; the term is usually defined as one-half the width of the saltire, and is a relatively recent "innovation" which is really not very different from a fillet saltire (as in the South African coat of National Cultural and Open-air Museum: Or; an ogress charged with a fillet saltire surmounted by an eight spoked wheel or, and ensigned of a billet sable; a chief nowy gabled, Sable).
A field (party) per saltire is divided into four areas by a saltire-shaped 'cut'. If two tinctures are specified, the first refers to the areas above (in chief) and below (in base) the crossing, and the second refers to the ones on either side (in the flanks); an example is the coat of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Per saltire Vert and Or four Fers de Moline counterchanged in fess point a Fountain. Otherwise, each of the four divisions may be blazoned separately.
The phrase in saltire is used in two ways:
Numerous flags are inspired by the saltire and the colours blue and white—mostly connected with Scotland, where Saint Andrew is the national patron saint. The naval ensign of the Imperial Russian (1696–1917) and Russian navies (1991–present) is a blue saltire on a white field. Prior to the Union the Royal Scots Navy used a red ensign incorporating the St Andrew's Cross; this ensign is now sometimes flown as part of an unofficial civil ensign in Scottish waters. With its colours exchanged (and a lighter blue), the same design forms part of the arms and flag of Nova Scotia (whose name means 'New Scotland'). The flags of the Spanish island of Tenerife and the remote Colombian islands of San Andrés and Providencia also use a white saltire on a blue field.
Saltires are also seen in several other flags, including the flags of Grenada, Jamaica, Alabama, Florida, Jersey, Amsterdam, Potchefstroom and Valdivia. The design is also part of the Confederate Battle Flag and Naval Jack used during the American Civil War (see Flags of the Confederate States of America). William Porcher Miles, designer of the Confederate Battle Flag never claimed it to be a St. Andrew's cross design, but rather a heraldic saltire without religious symbolism.
A white saltire on a blue background (or black on yellow for temporary signs) is displayed in UK railway signalling as a "cancelling indicator" for the Automatic Warning System (AWS), informing the driver that the received warning can be disregarded.
In Cameroon, a red "X" placed on illegally constructed buildings scheduled for demolition is occasionally referred to as a "St Andrew's Cross". It is usually accompanied by the letters "A.D." ("à détruire" - French for "to be demolished") and a date or deadline. During a campaign of urban renewal by the Yaoundé Urban Council in Cameroon, the cross was popularly referred to as "Tsimi's Cross" after the Government Delegate to Yaoundé Urban Council Gilbert Tsimi Evouna.
Less formally, on occasions of political controversy in many countries and times the usage of marking the face of a political opponent on a poster with an "X" is a commonly understood way of expressing strong disapproval, sometimes even the wish to kill the person whose picture is so marked.
Category:Flags Category:Christian symbols Category:Cross symbols Category:Heraldic ordinaries Category:Andrew the Apostle Category:Flags of saints
ast:Cruz de San Andrés bg:Андреевски кръст ca:Sautor cs:Ondřejský kříž da:Andreaskors de:Andreaskreuz es:Cruz de San Andrés eo:Andrea kruco fr:Croix de saint André hr:Andrijin križ it:Decusse he:צלב אנדראס הקדוש la:Crux decussata lb:Andreaskräiz lt:Andriaus kryžius hu:András-kereszt mk:Андреевски крст nl:Andreaskruis ja:聖アンデレ十字 no:Andreaskors nn:Andreaskross pl:Krzyż świętego Andrzeja pt:Sautor ru:Андреевский крест sl:Andrejev križ sr:Андрејин крст sh:Andrejin krst fi:Vinoristi sv:Andreaskors th:กางเขนไขว้ uk:Андріївський хрест zh:圣安德鲁十字This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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