Why is Nepal's flag not a rectangle, and which flags look almost identical? A guide to the facts about national flags that appear most often in quizzes.
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Every country has a flag, and every flag tells a story about history, faith, landscape or struggle. The study of flags even has its own name: vexillology. For quiz players, flags are a rewarding subject, because a small number of facts explains a large number of designs.
Flags That Break the Rules
- Nepal has the only national flag that is not a rectangle or a square. It is made of two triangular pennants, one above the other, carrying a moon and a sun.
- Switzerland and Vatican City are the only two countries with square flags.
- Denmark's flag, a white cross on a red background, is generally regarded as the oldest national flag still in use. According to legend it dates from 1219.
- Libya used a plain green flag, with no symbol or writing at all, from 1977 to 2011.
Flags That Are Easy to Confuse
Some pairs differ only in small details, and picture rounds are built around them.
- Indonesia and Monaco: both are red above white. Poland is the reverse, white above red.
- Ireland and Ivory Coast: Ireland is green, white and orange, reading from the flagpole. Ivory Coast is orange, white and green.
- Romania and Chad: both are blue, yellow and red in vertical stripes, and are almost impossible to tell apart.
- The Netherlands and Luxembourg: both are red, white and blue in horizontal stripes. Luxembourg uses a lighter blue.
- Australia and New Zealand: both show the Union Jack and the Southern Cross. Australia's stars are white and include a large extra star below the Union Jack. New Zealand has four red stars.
Families of Colours
Many flags share colours because neighbouring nations share history.
- Pan-African colours: red, gold and green, taken from the flag of Ethiopia, and used by many African countries such as Ghana and Senegal.
- Pan-Arab colours: red, white, green and black, seen on the flags of Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and others.
- Pan-Slavic colours: white, blue and red, used by Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and several of their neighbours.
- The Nordic cross: an off-centre cross found on the flags of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland.
Symbols and What They Show
- Japan: a red disc representing the sun.
- Bangladesh: a red disc on green, placed slightly towards the flagpole.
- Canada: a red maple leaf, adopted in 1965.
- United States: fifty stars for the fifty states and thirteen stripes for the original colonies.
- United Kingdom: the Union Jack combines the crosses of the patron saints of England, Scotland and Ireland.
- Mexico: an eagle standing on a cactus with a snake in its beak, from an Aztec legend.
- Lebanon: a green cedar tree.
- Cambodia: the temple of Angkor Wat, one of the few buildings to appear on a national flag.
- Cyprus: a map of the island itself.
- Bhutan: a dragon.
- Turkey and Pakistan: a crescent and a star.
- Brazil: a blue globe with stars and the motto Ordem e Progresso, meaning order and progress.
The Indian Tricolour
The national flag of India, the Tiranga, has three horizontal bands of equal width. Saffron at the top stands for courage and sacrifice, white in the middle for peace and truth, and green at the bottom for faith and the fertility of the land. At the centre is the Ashoka Chakra, a navy-blue wheel with 24 spokes, taken from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath.
The flag was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947. Its design is based on a flag created by Pingali Venkayya. The ratio of its width to its length is two to three, and the rules for displaying it are set out in the Flag Code of India.
Flags That Are Not National
- The Olympic flag: five interlocking rings of blue, yellow, black, green and red on a white background, designed by Pierre de Coubertin. At least one of these colours appears on every national flag.
- The United Nations flag: a map of the world surrounded by olive branches, in white on light blue.
- The Red Cross flag: a red cross on white, the reverse of the Swiss flag, in honour of the country where the organisation was founded.
Flag Words Worth Knowing
- Hoist: the half of the flag nearest the pole.
- Fly: the half farthest from the pole.
- Canton: the upper corner next to the pole, where the stars sit on the flag of the United States.
- Half-mast: flying a flag partway down the pole as a sign of mourning.
- Tricolour: any flag with three bands of colour.
How to Learn Flags Quickly
- Start with the confusing pairs, since those are the ones a quiz will show you.
- Group flags by colour family or by region instead of learning them alphabetically.
- For each flag, remember one feature that no other flag has.
- Practise with pictures. Flags are a visual subject, and reading about them is no substitute for looking at them.
Test Your Flag Knowledge
Ready to tell Ireland from Ivory Coast at a glance? Try Quizlino's Flags of the World Quiz.