About FlagFans
A love letter to the world's flags
From Marcus
I have always loved flags. By the age of 9 or so, I knew every flag in the world – both from studying them in a little well-worn pocket book and from spotting them on cargo ships sailing about the Scandinavian waters. There were some really exotic ones from tiny Caribbean islands and even from land-locked countries!
How a whole nation can agree on one symbol to represent them is quite something. Maybe they did not ask everyone in the first place or there would have been chaos! The power of a flag as national pride is, however, beyond debate. Flags are flown in battle, burnt in protest, placed on coffins in honour of the fallen, desecrated as insult, sometimes reinvented, and sometimes – as in the case of my national flag from Denmark, the Dannebrog – they last for almost a millennium and are still going strong!
I hope you will enjoy this collection of flags, perhaps be inspired to design one for yourself or a group you belong to, and pick up some vexillology trivia to share with others about this powerful and emotional use of a flying symbol by which we live and die.
What is FlagFans?
FlagFans is a free educational resource for anyone curious about the flags of the world. Explore nearly 400 flags from countries, territories, organisations, and regions. Study their history, test your knowledge in quizzes, play detective to identify flags from clues, or design your own flag guided by real-world symbolism.
What is vexillology?
Vexillology (from the Latin vexillum, meaning “flag”) is the scholarly study of flags – their history, symbolism, and usage. The term was coined in 1957 by Whitney Smith, who founded the Flag Research Center. The international symbol of vexillology is the figure-of-eight knot, representing the binding together of peoples under a common banner.
Flag Trivia for Flag Geeks
Raising & Lowering
A national flag should be raised briskly and lowered ceremoniously. When flown at half-mast as a sign of mourning, the flag is first raised to the top of the pole and then lowered to the halfway point – and when it is taken down at the end of the day, it must be raised to the top again before being lowered all the way. The flag should never be flown after dark unless it is illuminated.
Never Touch the Ground
In virtually every flag tradition, allowing a national flag to touch the ground is considered deeply disrespectful. This custom dates back to medieval battle standards – if the flag touched the ground, it meant the standard-bearer had fallen and the unit was in trouble. Today, flag handlers take great care when folding, carrying, or hoisting a flag to ensure it never contacts the ground, floor, or water.
Flying Upside Down
Flying a nation's flag upside down is a traditional signal of distress or, historically, an act of surrender. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that many flags look identical either way up – Austria, Nigeria, Israel, and Japan are just a few examples whose designs have rotational symmetry, making them indistinguishable when flown upside down. This is one reason why the plain white flag became the universal symbol of surrender and truce – it works regardless of which nation is waving it!
Retiring Old Glory
The United States has some of the most detailed flag disposal rules in the world. The U.S. Flag Code states that when a flag is “in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display,” it should be destroyed “in a dignified way, preferably by burning.” The American Legion, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts hold formal flag retirement ceremonies across the country. The flag is carefully inspected, the participants salute, the Pledge of Allegiance is recited, and the flag is placed on a fire large enough to completely consume it. Attendees stand in silence until the flag is fully burned.
The Most Changed Flag
The United States flag has been redesigned 27 times – more than any other nation's. Each time a new state was admitted to the Union, a star was added. The current 50-star design was created in 1958 by Robert Heft, a 17-year-old high school student in Ohio, as a class project. His teacher gave him a B−, but agreed to raise the grade if Congress accepted the design. It did, and Heft got his A.
The Only Non-Rectangular Flags
Nepal is the only country with a non-rectangular national flag – it consists of two stacked triangular pennants. Switzerland and Vatican City have square flags. The construction of Nepal's flag is so precisely defined that its constitution includes a detailed geometric algorithm for drawing it, complete with compass-and-straightedge instructions running to several pages.
Flags at Sea
Maritime flag protocol is a world unto itself. Ships fly their national ensign at the stern, a courtesy flag of the host nation at the starboard yardarm, and signal flags to spell out messages using the International Code of Signals. The flag “Bravo” (a red swallowtail) means the ship is carrying dangerous cargo. “Oscar” (a diagonally divided yellow-and-red flag) means “man overboard.” And “Quebec” (a solid yellow flag) – once the dreaded quarantine flag – now simply means “my vessel is healthy and I request free pratique.”
The Most Common Colours
Red is the most popular flag colour in the world, appearing on roughly 75% of all national flags. White comes second, followed by blue, green, yellow, and black. Purple is the rarest – only two national flags use it: Nicaragua (in the rainbow on its coat of arms) and Dominica (in the plumage of the Sisserou parrot). Historically, purple dye was extraordinarily expensive – worth more than gold by weight – which is why it was reserved for royalty and never used on flags that would be mass-produced for armies and fleets.
The Rule of Tincture
Borrowed from heraldry, the Rule of Tincture states that light colours (“metals” – gold and silver/white) should not be placed next to each other, and dark colours (“colours” – red, blue, green, black, purple) should not be placed next to each other. This ensures contrast and visibility at a distance. The Vatican flag (gold and white side by side) is one of the few flags that deliberately breaks this rule – because, as the saying goes, the Pope answers to no earthly authority, not even the rules of heraldry.
The Largest Flag Ever Flown
The largest flag ever flown was a Romanian national flag unfurled in Clinceni in 2013, measuring 349 by 227 metres – larger than five football pitches. It took 200 people to unfurl and required being spread on a flat field because no flagpole in the world could support it.