Flag of New Mexico
Appearance
![](http://chped.net/https/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_New_Mexico.svg/178px-Flag_of_New_Mexico.svg.png)
The Flag of the State of New Mexico has the red sun symbol of the Zia people in the middle and has a yellow background.
In 1920, Dr. Harry Mera, an archaeologist, won a contest to design a new state flag and chose the Zia sun symbol because he was familiar with it. It was used in Zia Pueblo on a 19th century pot. There is four points in the symbol because four is a sacred number to the Zia. To the Zia, it is the Circle of Life: four winds, four seasons, four directions, and four sacred obligations. New Mexico was the 48th state and it was founded in 1912.