Offingawier (The Netherlands)

Sneek municipality, Fryslân province

Last modified: 2004-10-02 by jarig bakker
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• Offingawier rejected flag
• Offingawier rejected CoA

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Offingawier rejected flag

Offingawier (Frisian: Offenwier) is a village in Sneek municipality, Fryslân province.
In the "Friesch Dagblad" (newspaper) of 25 Sep 2004 is a curious article:

...The villagers celebrated for three days the opening of the village center, that it was moved from Wymbritseradiel to Sneek 10 years ago, and that it was exactly 550 years ago that the small lock between the watercourses of the Lege Geaën and the Sneekermeer (the Offingawiersterzijl) drifted away in 1464 by heavy flooding. A small island on which several pigs and sheep were grazing, floated in the gap, in which it got stuck. That was on Friday-night before St. Catharine's.
Last night (24 Sep)  a village flag and coat of arms was presented, The top half of the flag is blue, the bottom green. Halfway is a red bar representing the "Grienedyk" (green dike), the elevation on the bar is the stuck lock. The flag was made by Annie Sjoerdsma, while the arms were painted by Sieb Boschma. In the arms are the four symbols of the village: a clover, a spire (of the St. Nicholaschurch, built in 1355), a sailing boat and a cow's head.

The village belonged to the Sneker "vijfga" (five neighbourhoods), hence the five-pointed star in the arms (like in Scharnegoutum). The cross represents the nunnery "Groendijk", the clover the agricultural environment, and the blue color the Snekermeer (lake); the green bar is for the "Grienedyk" (Hemdijk)

Mr. Broersma  comments: "The description of the arms is NOT my design; they must have started some tomfoolery themselves (the clover is in my design, as well as the reference to the green dike".

Note: the design of the adopted flag is not known at present. Only in 1984 it was discovered that the oldest elements of the church dated from 1355, making that the oldest structure in the municipality of Sneek.The tale of the drifting lock has been written by Worp van Thabor (? - 1538) in "Kroniek van Friesland".
Jarig Bakker, 30 Sep 2004

Offingawier rejected CoA