what do the eight rays of the sun symbolize
Flag of the Philippines The National Flag of the Philippines (Filipino: Pambansang Watawat ng Pilipinas) is a horizontal flag bicolor with equal bands of royal blue and scarlet, and with a white, equilateral triangle at the hoist. In the center of the triangle is a golden-yellow sun with eight primary rays, each representing a Philippine province.[a] At each vertex of the triangle is a five-pointed, golden-yellow star, each of which representing one of the country's three main island groupsâ€”Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the central star originally referred to Panay (where Iloilo is located, the first province outside Luzon to have raised this flag) which is commonly mistaken to be the whole island group of Visayas. Panay, which recent interpretations call as "as representative of the entire Visayas region".[13] A unique feature of this flag is its ability to indicate a state of war if it is displayed with the red side on top.[14]