There are 197 recognized countries in the world and each country has its own flag. Just as clothes say a lot about a person’s personality, a country’s flag also says a lot about that country.
Nepal is the only country in the world with an unusually shaped flag. The two triangles represent the two peaks of Mount Everest, located on the border of this country. According to legend, Nepal will survive as long as the sun and moon depicted on the flag exist.
Flags of all other countries are rectangular. However, the national flags of the Vatican and Switzerland are a bit different – their flags are square.
The Red Cross flag used by the International Committee of the Red Cross is derived from the Swiss flag but its colors are reversed. This symbol was chosen to honor the founder of ICRC – a Swiss man named Henry Dunant.
There are 55 flags in the world that are all horizontal and have 3 stripes. The most common colors on world flags are red, white and blue. One of these colors always appears on a flag.
However, Jamaica’s flag is yellow-black-blue in honor of Independence Day, August 6, 1962 when the country was freed from British rule. These colors are rarely seen on other flags.
The rare color seen on the national flags is purple. Because in the past, dyeing natural purple was quite complicated and expensive, and by the end of the 19th century when the artificial version of the dye appeared, most countries had adopted it on their national flags.
Today purple only appears on the flag of Dominica. It is on the chest color of the sisserou parrot – the symbol of the country.
There is another rare color that only appears on one national flag: aquamarine. It represents the water on the flag of the Bahamas, while the yellow stripe represents a coast and the black triangle represents the unity and determination of the Bahamians.
This flag is quite “young” – only 45 years old. It was adopted in 1973.
It is difficult to find out which of the flags has existed the oldest. But the oldest continuously used flag in the world is the flag of Denmark. It dates back to the 14th century and has its own name of Dannebrog.
Curiously, insulting other countries’ flags is officially banned in Denmark, while there’s no official penalty when someone insults their own country’s flag.
One of the youngest flags is the flag of Seychelles, only 22 years old and it was adopted in 1996. You can feel the energy and light through the 5 “light rays” on the flag.
The flag of Canada is also quite young – 53 years old. It was adopted in 1965. The maple leaf on the Canadian flag is unlike any other in the wild. It is explained that when the flag is blown in the wind, the shape of the real leaf will be changed like that
Japan renewed the flag 20 years ago but only partially. In the flag used before 1999, the red circle is a different color and it is not directly in the center. The proportions of the flag are also different.
The flag of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is called the Union Jack. It includes the Cross of St. George, Cross of St. Andrew and the Cross of St. Patrick.
However, Wales, part of the country, is not represented on the flag.
The Philippines is the only country that can change the color of its flag. During wartime, the red and blue stripes switched places.
The flag of Paraguay is unique because it has 2 sides. The front is the national emblem and the back is the seal of the treasury.
We can see many animals, tools and even weapons on many countries’ flags but human images only appear on the flag of Belize.
Portugal is the only country to feature a scientific device on its flag. It is a globe – an astronomical device for calculating coordinates.
The flag reminds the people of the great Portuguese navigators, their voyages and outstanding geographical discoveries.
The flag of Bhutan has a dragon symbol. It symbolizes the name of the country in the Tibetan language: “Land of the Dragon”. The dragon holds jewels on the feet, symbolizing the wealth of the country.
There are many weapons appearing on different national flags but no country has a detailed image of the AK-47 assault rifle except Mozambique. The book, pickaxe and rifle symbolize education, production and defense of the country.
The flag of Brazil is an image of a starry sky on November 15, 1889 at 8:30 a.m. the day Brazil was declared a republic.
The Southern Cross is a famous constellation seen only below the equator. In addition to Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Samoa, the symbol also appears on other national flags in that region.
One can easily tell where Nauru is on the world map by looking at their national flag.
The yellow band represents the equator, the blue the Pacific Ocean, and the star is the island’s position along the equator.
Qatar has the longest flag. The right side of the flag used to be red until 1936 but the dyes turned brown in the sun, so the color of the flag was changed.
The flags of Indonesia and Monaco look quite similar.
Indonesia declared its independence in 1945 with a red and white national flag. Monaco tried to protest this because they had a similar flag but the protest was put down because the Indonesian flag was darker in color.
Today, the flags of these 2 countries differ only in proportions. Indonesia’s flag ratio is 2:3, while Monaco’s is 4:5.
Romania and Chad are similar with two nearly identical flags. The difference of shades of blue is almost indistinguishable.
The national flag of Mauritius is the only one consisting of 4 horizontal stripes. It was designed in 1967 at the College of Arms of Great Britain.
Today, there is no monochrome flag left in the world but there was once.
From 1815 to 1830, France had a monochrome white flag.
From 1880 to 1901, the flag of Afghanistan was a monochrome black canvas.
From 1977 to 2011, the national flag of Libya was the only flag in the world in the shape of a green rectangle.
The flags of different countries are like people: sometimes they look like two drops of water and sometimes they differ as much as black and white. However, each flag carries a part of the culture of each country.