Member Login | Not a FREE member yet? Sign Up Here!

Coats Of Arms: Bearing The Family Heritage
By: Jazmin Begbie

Coats of arms speak of the family history and heritage through the years. Often people and nations like to use coats of arms to portray their values, principles and what they stand for. Coats of arms have certain symbols with meanings and depict the heraldry, colors, animals and various other symbols. They have been here for centuries. A few elements common to most of the coats of arms are discussed here.

Colors are used in coats of arms as background or as a part of a motif of two or more colors. Each color has a definite meaning. Gold stands for generosity and silver or white indicates peace and sincerity. Blue is the color of truth and loyalty and green symbolizes hope and joy. Colors like red and maroon are warrior colors. Red represents military strength and maroon signifies patience and victory in battle. Purple is the color of royal majesty and justice, and orange represents noble ambition.

Coats of arms quite frequently depict animals in them. Most of the times it is lion, especially in the royal and national crests. A lion standing on hind legs depicts resolute valor. If the lion is heraldic understand that is shows bravery, might and valor.

Eagle is another animal that finds a frequent place in coats of arms. It represents noble nature, strength and bravery, an eagle with outspread wings depicts protection and the one with two heads shows the joining of two forces. The Roman Empire chose eagle as its insignia and in the contemporary times the United States adorns it.

Besides the aforementioned two animals there are others like boar and bull for bravery and valor, cat for liberty and vigilance, rooster for perseverance and courage, dolphin for swiftness, charity, diligence and love, dragon as valiant defender, fish means generous, true and virtuous mind, ram indicates authority and serpent for wisdom. Imaginary animal like unicorn is also used. It depicts extreme courage and virtue.

Besides animals, nature finds its way in coats of arms in the form of plants. All of these plants represent one or the other virtue. Shamrock stands for perpetuity and harvest of hope is depicted by sheaf of wheat. Rose indicates hope, joy, grace and beauty and is the most commonly used plant. Laurel leaves are used to signify victory and lily for purity.

Oak tree in general represents great age, strength, continuous growth and fertility. However, its variations in form of leaves and nuts indicate different things. Acorn is used to depict strength and antiquity.

Besides colors, plants and animals, coats of arms also include weapons and armor. Hands or arms clad in arm indicate leadership. The helmet represents strength, invincibility and prudence. The axe signifies military duty and the arrow is a symbol of preparedness for war. A hammer stands for honor and the dagger indicates justice. The shackle bolt is a symbol of victory, the spear and the pike both represent an honorable warrior or valiant knight.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

About the author: Jazmin Begbie writes exclusively for Any Coats, it's one of the webs most up to date Coats sites, their free newsletter is well worth signing up for too. Want to read more Coats articles?, just go to: www.anycoats.com/articles
Don't reprint the same version as everyone else. Get your own unique content coats article here.

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated