Belarusians abroad have created a Heraldic Council “Pahonya”, which intends to carry out a lot of work for the future.
“The Heraldic Council unites several historians, heraldists, and artists. We have developed a draft system of state awards, which is partially being implemented now, including by the Joint Transitional Cabinet of Belarus. And since our profile is symbolism, symbols that represent some values, carry some kind of message, so toponymy also concerns our profile. This project was partly done by me in consultation with colleagues on the Heraldic Council, who are professional historians. Because it concerns symbolic space, street names and monuments are just the symbols that surround a person constantly in his daily life,” said Ales Chaichyts, publicist, public person, representative of the Heraldic Council “Pahonya”.
According to him, it was very important to see how it looks now in Minsk, in Belarus, and what needs to be done to improve it.
“Heraldry is in the sense of coats of arms and flags of cities and states. It is important. Because the coat of arms is something that represents a country, a city. Therefore, a big deal will have to be done in Belarus. Now in Belarus, we all understand that the flag is just some kind of coat of arms that does not follow the rules of heraldry. And it can’t even be considered a coat of arms. And it contradicts the historical tradition of the Belarusian one. In Belarus, the chase has always been the local, regional, and regional coat of arms. And even in the days of the Russian Empire, the chase was the provincial coat of arms on the territory of Belarus. At least for a significant part of Belarus,” says Chaichyts.
He believes that they have a lot of work ahead of them. “The coats of arms of the Belarusian regions are very unsuccessful now. These are partly provincial coats of arms, which were created by Russians and were imposed on Belarus by them, that is, foreigners. It is necessary to reform here. Urban heraldry-partly there are good examples, partly not. Therefore, all this will need to be redone due to the fact that there is such an unhealthy atmosphere in Belarus now,” the representative of the Heraldic Council said.