Flags look simple: a few colors, a shape or two, a rectangle of cloth. Look closer, though, and every flag is packed with history, symbols and the occasional design puzzle. The study of flags even has its own name, vexillology, from vexillum, the Latin word for a kind of banner carried by Roman soldiers.
Here are some of our favorite surprises.
The flag that isn't a rectangle
Nearly every national flag is a rectangle. Two are square: those of Switzerland and Vatican City. And then there's Nepal.
Nepal's flag is made of two stacked triangles, like two pennants flying one above the other. It's crimson with a blue border, with a white moon in the top triangle and a white sun in the bottom one. Nepal's constitution even includes step-by-step geometric instructions for drawing it, so anyone can get the shape exactly right.
In the United States, Ohio's state flag breaks the rule too, with a swallowtail shape. But among national flags, Nepal's stands alone.
Near-twins and look-alikes
Some flags are so similar that even flag fans have to look twice:
- Indonesia and Monaco are both red over white. The main difference is the proportions: Monaco's flag is a little taller for its width.
- Chad and Romania both have blue, yellow and red stripes in the same order. Chad's blue is a little darker.
- Ireland and Côte d'Ivoire use the same three colors, green, white and orange, but in reverse order.
- Italy and Mexico share green, white and red, but Mexico's flag has its coat of arms, an eagle on a cactus, in the middle.
Why so much red, white and blue?
Count the flags with red, white and blue and you'll find a long list: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and many more.
The capital of France is Paris, home of the famous Eiffel Tower.
Part of the answer is that flags copy famous flags. The Dutch red, white and blue is one of the oldest tricolors around, and France's blue, white and red tricolor, adopted in the 1790s, became a model for many countries that later chose three-striped flags of their own. Britain's Union Jack spread its red, white and blue around the world, which is why it still sits in the corner of the Australian and New Zealand flags.
The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C., and the country has 50 states.
The flag of the United States tells its story in numbers. Its 13 stripes stand for the original 13 colonies, and its 50 stars stand for today's 50 states. A star was added whenever a new state joined, so the flag has changed many times. The current 50-star version has flown since 1960.
Flags with a story in the details
The capital of Brazil is Brasília, and most of the Amazon rainforest is there.
The blue globe on Brazil's flag is full of stars, and they aren't placed at random. They show the sky over Rio de Janeiro on the morning of 15 November 1889, the day Brazil became a republic. Each of the 27 stars stands for a state or the Federal District, and the white band carries the motto "Ordem e Progresso," Portuguese for "Order and Progress."
The capital of Japan is Tokyo, and the country is made of thousands of islands.
Japan's flag is known as the Hinomaru, the "circle of the sun." A red disc on a white field, it's one of the simplest flags in the world. Paraguay's flag goes the other way: it has a different emblem on its front and its back, which is very unusual. And Denmark's red flag with its white cross is often called the oldest national flag still in use.
In Spinbo, flags live in Around the World, a themed world where clouds drift across the sky and your buddy asks, "Where to next?" Each flag card names the country and shares one clear fact about it, such as its capital, read aloud in your language and in a second one.
Next time you spot a flag on a building or at a game, take a closer look. There's probably a story in it.
