Similar flags of the world – and more

Have you ever noticed the similarity between different national flags. You would think that when a country designs a flag that it would make an attempt to be different from anything else that has gone before. Though many flags incorporate their history so I guess it is inevitable that the Scandinavian flags, for example, are similar.

Many people on Facebook use the incorrect flag icons, and looking at the flags, it is easy to see why

Ireland and Ivory Coast
Chad and Romania
Mali and Senegal
Monaco and Indonesia
Norway and Iceland
Luxembourg and the Netherlands
Australia and New Zealand

People also often place the Union Jack upside down. And purists say it should be called a Union flag of a Union Jack Flag because a jack is flown from the jackstaff of a ship.

The flag was formed by combining the crosses of the patron saints of England, Scotland and Ireland – St. George, St. Andrew and St. Patrick. Wales was already a principality of England by this point so didn’t get visual representation on the flag.

and…many – if not most – people think that the 12 stars in the EU flag refer to the original countries when the flag was designed. They would be wrong. The number of stars is fixed, twelve being the symbol of perfection and unity. Twelve apostles, twelve hours in a day, twelve months in the year etc.

 

Author: Janet Carr

Fashion, beauty and animal loving language consultant from South Africa living in Stockholm, Sweden.

6 thoughts

  1. I have been fascinated by flags for years. I know most of them and spend time comparing them. Mind you, working for the EU and having to sit for hours in front of the European flags either in Brussels or in Strasburg made me memorize the European ones pretty quickly.

    If you are interested in learning about the use of colours and the similarities between the flags, I find the Wikipedia article “Flag” rather informative (I usually utterly dislike Wikipedia and never use it). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag

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