Do you know these flags?
Problem
Can you name the countries of all the flags above? So many flags are three bands of colour, horizontal or vertical. Descending red, white and blue is France. Red, white and blue with the coat of arms in the middle is Croatia.
Italy's flag is green, white and red vertically. Italian restaurants often make a three colour starter, green salad, white cheese, red tomato.
Other flags are a white cross on a contrasting background. Some look like a plus sign.
CROSSES
Switzerland has the white cross sign on red.
(Opposite of the red cross sign.)
Iran has another sign for medical help incorporating a dragon but we are getting sidetracked. Let's go back to flags.
What's this - which country.
One plus-sign is off-centre. That's Denmark. Mark Denmark down as being different.
Depending on how you focus your eyes, you see either a white cross on a red background, or four red squares on a white background.
Here's another off centre flag. Sweden, surrounded by sea.
This one is way out. Two crosses. It's Norway. Far west. Goes beyond the bacon red of Denmark (Danish bacon) and the blue of Sweden.
Iceland is a similar design, different colours.
The reverse: red cross on a blue background. How do you remember which is which? Iceland is completely surrounded by sea, so it has the blue squares.
Here's the flag of Finland. Blue on white.
White backgrounds. The trouble with white backgrounds, is that the flag background disappears on white paper. The solution is to find a photo of a flag waving against a blue sky. I found this out with the flag of Japan.
Other white background flags are Singapore and Poland.
Singapore flags fly from apartment blocks on National Day, and hang around all year.
Russian and Bulgaria also have white horizontals. Russia's is white, blue, red.
From Wikipedia the photo by Vexillus shows the Russian flag flying.(I keep rewriting that sentence to be accurate. The photo is by Vexillus, not the flag nor the entire Wikipedia.)
Slovakia and Slovenia also have a white stripe at the top, blue in the centre, red below, with a lozenge distinguishing them from Russia.
Other flags look like the letter X.
Let's do a hunt. Wikipedia has small flags and large flags. Here are the small ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states
Foreigners, tourists might have a problem. Residents know their own country's flags. Or do they?
Union Jack
The Union Jack was a flag which combined three flags. I can recognize, when I think about it, that the Union Jack has a red cross in the middle and that's the flag of England. In the 21st century, we've been seeing it a lot, now that cars can fly the flag of the English football team. In the 20th century, I would have recognized the Union Jack, but the England flag.
I still have trouble remembering which way up the Union Jack goes. I think the broad band of white is supposed to be uppermost next to the upright support.
Why does it matter? Because, if you fly the flag upside down, it's a distress signal. That matters when you are out at sea. Boy scouts on boats and people working in the navy or merchant navy know this.
Every now and then somebody gets it wrong and you read about the conflict in the newspapers. Outrage! The nitpickers are throwing insults at the 'didn't-knows' and 'don't-cares'. (I just made up those words.) The 'get-it-right!' brigade is pitted against the 'what-does-it-matter?' brigade. You look at the flag and try to learn it again.
Vertical Stripe Flags
France: Red, white and Blue.
Italy. Green, white and red.
France
Horizontal Stripes
Russia. Germany.
Netherlands: Red, white and blue.
Russia: White, blue and red. Starting with the white Russians.
Germany: Black, red, yellow.
The German flag.
The Stars of Australia and New Zealand
Australia is a bigger place. One big star and more.
Macedonia's Flag
Finally, newest kid on the block. Macedonia.
You would not confuse this distinctive flag of Macedonia with anybody else's! It's Macedonia!
It turns out that neighbouring Greece is the main trading partner and benefactor of Macedonia. So, finally, they have reached a compromise and I think the new flag is terrific. You can see it for miles. That's what a flag is for.
I see a pattern in small and large events. Macedonia and Greece, are like a son who left home and wanted to be independent and father is worried that the son wants to take over Dad's property.
Another analogy is the companies where the son sets up a rival business such as a hotel group, and wants to continue using the family name. They go to court and eventually an agreement is reached for two separate brands, with similar names, which confuse some of the public. When you look into, you find you now have two distinctive countries, Greece and Macedonia, with a shared history, both of which are worth visiting.
You might say the flag is garish. It's very modern. I can recognize it instantly, with no effort. That's what a flag is for. I like it.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I can give an amusing talk or workshop on flags to schools, colleges, or businesses, as an after dinner speech, entertaining and educational. See my other posts on flags. Please share links to your favourite posts.
