What does your countries flag symbolize?

[BeBro]

And please be a bit specific, I know the stars in the US flag represent the states - but for what are those stripes? And anything special about the colors used?

For the union jack - is the big red cross in the center related to England´s flag? But what does the rest there?

Germany´s current flag (black/red/gold): Those colors were used first for elements of the uniforms of a special unit of German soldiers during the wars against Napoleon. After 1815 students adopted these colors and created the first flag in black/red/gold, used often in meetings were the restaurated monarchic system was criticized, and were civil rights were advocated. At this time the colors became symbols for the dark (black) past (Germany ruled by Napoleon) the present with bloody (red) fights for civil rights and the hope for a golden future.

This flag was officially used since 1918 by the Weimar republic until the Nazi rule. After 1945 both East and West Germany returned to those colors (but East Germany added some "communist" symbols)

So what are the stories behind your flag?

[Japher]

The stripes are the 13 colonies. The colors?

Red: Represents the blood we spilt when we stole the country and "liberated" it
White: The color of our skin...
Blue: The color of the supreme race's eyes...?

[loinburger]

The stripes on the US flag represent the original thirteen states. They started out adding a new stripe to the flag every time they added another state to the union, but that quickly became impractical.

[Imran Siddiqui]

but for what are those stripes

13 stripes... one for each colony that gained independance in 1776.

[DaShi]

The Japanese flag is a JigglyPuff as seen from above.

[BeBro]

I thought it was the Tenno´s blood test

[Solly]

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Officialese, "The flag of the United Kingdom, the Union Jack, is a superposition of the flags of Saint George (for England), Saint Andrew (for Scotland) and Saint Patrick (for Ireland). This superposition is quite intricate, and often drawn incorrectly."

[Solly]

Notice that it doesn't incorporate the flags of Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan or Somalia.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Or Wales.

[Solly]

A dragon would look quite odd over all that lot!

[Pekka]

I'm not sure. Blue is for the sky, white for the clouds? Something like that.

[Chilean President™]

Blue is the sky and the sea that caresses our land.
White is the snow of the mighty Andes that protect us as a defensive wall.
Red is the blood of the soldiers that fought for our independence.
The white star represent the unity of the Nation under one head of state, the President. (on the early years the white 5 points star had another one on the background of 8 points that represented the Araucanos native... their holy 8 points star).

[Adalbertus]

Pekka, white is for the snow

According to what I've heard about the Union Jack, there is some intricate ranking of the three flags. The English as the most important is in the foreground, the Scottish in the background. When the Irish had to be added, it had to go on top of the Scottish flag (obvious reasons of composition). To indicate that Scotland is more important than Ireland, the Patrick's cross has been lowered at the side of the pole, and as a "countermeasure" and probably also for aesthetical reasons, lifted on the other side.
Ok, that's what I was told by an English person after a concert in Lancaster.

[Solly]

The diagonals still point towards the centre when you take a weight.

[DAVOUT]

EU flag :

- The color blue symbolize the Earth, the Blue Planet (as seen from space)

- The ring of golden stars represents the European nations which intend to dominate said planet.

[Spiffor]

French Flag :

Originially drawn during the early revolution, when the revolutionaries thought of instauring a reformed monarchy.

Blue and Red are the colours of Paris (don't ask me why), where the Revolution has taken place. And White is the colour of the monarchy, which was still concieved as the best politicl system for the near future at the time.

[Solly]

"The ring of golden stars represents the European nations which intend to dominate said planet."

Strange, how come France's isn't missing?

[Velociryx]

Nahh, we've changed the meaning behind the flag here in the states.

Stars - standard caliber of gun owned by all us gun toting, violent cowboys

Stripes - ammo-load of said gun

Colors - Red - blood. You know, it...does something to us.

White - The color of those padded rooms we sometimes visit before and after the state-mandated shock treatments

Blue - who knows....

-=Vel=-

[Chemical Ollie]

Blue is the sky, yellow is the sun and the cross is for Christ.

Tomorrow is the Day of the Swedish Flag, our "Independence Day" when we celebrate that Gustav Wasa kicked out the Danish from Stockholm in 1520 something. No foregin army has been in Stockholm since then.

[Hot Mustard]

I don't know what the Canadian flag symbolizes officially, but I've always imagined it represents a central canada (Ontario; Toronto; Ottawa) that is important enough to get the only symbol on the flag, and it dominates the flag, whereas the red sides represent the Maritimes (east coast provinces) and the western provinces, which are bleeding from the abuse of their natural resources thanks to decades of federal mis-management.

[monolith94]

"the dark (black) past (Germany ruled by Napoleon)"
Germany has never had a better ruler than Napoleon!

The flag I'm using is that of tibet - ringed on three sides to show it's religious nature, but with one side open to show that religion is not all encompassing... Etcetera, etcetera...

[Pekka]

Olaf, Blue is sky, yellow is ... yellow snow

[Drake Tungsten]

A dragon would look quite odd over all that lot!

It would be a little strange to use the dragon flag anyhow; all the other flags incorporated into the Union Jack are the flags of patron saints, so it would be more advisable to use the flag of St. David for Wales. It would still look weird though, as black and gold don't mix very well with red, white and blue. I suggest you guys give Wales its independence and be done with the whole deal.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Pekka
Olaf, Blue is sky, yellow is ... yellow snow

Yes the snow we pissed on when we conquered the eastern landscape

[Kirnwaffen]

http://www.usacitylink.com/usa/?file...a/history.html

Not sure if this is accurate. Best info I could find for US flag tho.

[Ben Kenobi]

http://fraser.cc/FlagsCan/Nation/CanFlag.html

"Le principal, la feuille d'Erable, a été, comme on sait, adopté comme l'emblême du Bas-Canada..."

(Why the Maple leaf is a Canadian symbol)

The stripes, and the design process.

"
The first problem was the design. Already Matheson had abandoned any expectation of obtaining acceptance for either his original three-leaf flag or Pearson's favourite blue-bar modification. Each had sunk beneath an overburden of political criticism. Further, he was becoming persuaded of the elegant simplicity of a single leaf design. Extensive conversations with two friends, neither of whom made formal presentations to the committee, strongly influenced Matheson's ultimate choice.

The first was Lt.-Col. George F.G. Stanley, Ph.D., then Dean of Arts at the Royal Military College, at Kingston, and later to be lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick. John Matheson tells of one of their conversations which took place in Kingston earlier that year:


I particularly recall standing beside George Stanley and looking up at the Royal Military College flag.... This flag had three vertical pales, red-white-red, with the college crest (a mailed fist holding three maple leaves) on the white centre pale. Dr. Stanley remarked "There, John, is your flag." Interpreting him literally I remarked that Canadians would not accept a mailed fist symbol. He said, "No, I mean with a red maple leaf in the place of the College Crest."78

Not only was the RMC flag in the national colours, but its striking red-white-red pales were very probably modeled upon the ribbon on Canada's first military medal, the General Service Medal, issued for the defence of Canada between 1866 and 1870. However, the equal pales presented a flag too close to that of Peru, and the centre white pale was too narrow to effectively display a single large maple leaf. So, following the suggestion of Eugène Fiset to the arms committee in 1919, Matheson broadened the central pale to a form a square. The irony of thus presenting the angry Legionnaires with what was their own badge appealed to Matheson's sense of mischief."

[CyberGnu]

Olaf, the colors doesn't really symbolize anything, as far as anyone knows. Before Magnus Eriksson each swedish king devised his own personal heraldic device and used that as the official "state weapon" (riksvapen). Erik Eriksson, for example, had three crowned cheetas.

The three crowns seems to start with Magnus Ladulaas, who had as his device a golden lion surrounded by three golden crowns on a blue background. A hundred or so years later Magnus Eriksson adopted a similar device, with just three golden crowns on a blue background.

When Albrekt of Mecklenburg took over from Eriksson, he elected to cast off his familys crest, and used the Eriksson device instead. Possibly as a political move to make his succession more legitimate, although some claims that he considered the three crowns symbolizing the three realms: sweden denmark and norway.

The use of the "three crowns" as a flag (as the device is known as in swedish) started in 1440, when Karl Knutsson Bonde used the three golden crowns on a blue background in his war against Denmark.

[Q Classic]

the red and blue form the yin-yang circle; more accurately, since it's in korea, the um-yang circle.
it refers to opposites, but not to n/s korea.

the bars are the elements, earth, sky, fire, water.

the white background represents the people.

the flag itself is known as the taegukki, where ki is flag. taeguk literally translates to "great nation", iirc, but is almost never used to refer to korea itself, which is hanguk, taehanminguk, or, in the north, choson.
nobody really uses that except those brainwashed people.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by dejon
I don't know what the Canadian flag symbolizes officially, but I've always imagined it represents a central canada (Ontario; Toronto; Ottawa) that is important enough to get the only symbol on the flag, and it dominates the flag, whereas the red sides represent the Maritimes (east coast provinces) and the western provinces, which are bleeding from the abuse of their natural resources thanks to decades of federal mis-management.

The Maple Leaf represents Toronto. The stem is symbolic of a pier representing the port of Toronto. The base of the leaf is the harbour front of Toronto. The centre top section represents the skyline of Toronto. The sections pointing up and to the right, and to the left, represents Toronto giving the finger to the east and west.

[Q Classic]

btw, today's korea's memorial day, a national holiday.

and i don't know why it's red and blue, it's just the way it's always been done. same with the black element symbols.