history

Bangladesh 1

Bangladesh

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The national flag of Bangladesh was adopted officially on 17 January 1972. It consists of a red disc on top of a green field. The red disc is offset slightly toward the hoist so that it appears centred when the flag is flying. The red disc represents the sun rising over Bengal, and also the blood of those who died for the independence of Bangladesh. The green field stands for the lushness of the land of Bangladesh. The flag is similar to the Japanese flag, with the difference being the Japanese flag depicting the red disc centered on a white field.

The flag is based on a similar flag used during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, which had a yellow map of the country inside the red disc. In 1972 this map was removed from the flag. One reason given was the difficulty for rendering the map correctly on both sides of the flag. The Green part of the flag is irrelevant to Islam.

The first version of the flag was designed and made by a section of student leaders and activists of Swadheen Bangla Nucleus on 6 June 1970, at room 108 of Iqbal Hall (now Sergeant Zahurul Haq hall), Dhaka University. The flag was made from donated clothes.

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Bahrain 2

Bahrain

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The national flag of Bahrain consists of a white band on the left, separated from a red area on the right by five triangles that serve as a serrated line. The five white triangles symbolize the five pillars of Islam. It is sometimes mistaken for the flag of Qatar, but that flag is maroon, not red, has more points (9) and normally has a much greater length-to-width ratio.

The earliest known flags of Bahrain were plain red. In 1820, Bahrain signed a general maritime treaty with the British Empire, and as result, a white stripe was added to the flag to signify the treaty and to distinguish it from the flags commonly used by pirates. In 1932, a serrated edge was added to the flag in order to differentiate it from those of its neighbours.

The flag originally had twenty-eight white points, but this was reduced to eight in 1972. On 14 February 2002, the number was again reduced to five, so that each of the points could stand for one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

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Bahamas 3

Bahamas

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The national flag of the Bahamas consists of a black triangle situated at the hoist with three horizontal bands: aquamarine, gold and aquamarine. Adopted in 1973 to replace the British Blue Ensign defaced with the emblem of the Crown Colony of the Bahama Islands, it has been the flag of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas since the country gained independence that year. The design of the present flag incorporated the elements of various submissions made in a national contest for a new flag prior to independence.

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Azerbaijan 4

Azerbaijan

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The flag of Azerbaijan is a horizontal tricolour featuring three equally sized fesses of blue, red, and green, with a white crescent and an eight-pointed star in the center. The tricolour replaced an earlier design used by the Azerbaijan SSR. The blue symbolizes Azerbaijan’s Turkic heritage, the red stands for progress, and the green represents Islam. The official colors and size were adopted on 5 February 1991. This flag was used from 9 November 1918 to 1920, when Azerbaijan was independent, and it was revived with slight variations on 5 February 1991. The nickname for the flag is Üçrəngli Bayraq, which means The Tricolour Flag.

The sky blue symbolizes Turkic Multinationalism, the red is for the progress to establish a modern state and the development of democracy, and green shows the nation’s relation to the Muslim world.

While the crescent and star are typically seen as markers of Islam, some historians and researchers disagree about why an eight-pointed star is used on the flag of Azerbaijan. Fatali Khan Khoyski points to the eight letters in the word “Azerbaijan” as written in Arabic. The eight points of the star are also thought to stand for the eight Turkic peoples of Azerbaijan. The problem is there are only seven Turkic peoples: Azeris, Ottomans, Jagatais, Tatars, Kipchaks, Selijuks, and Turkomans. It’s possible the Kipchaks actually reflect two peoples, the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, which would make eight. The classification of Turkic peoples pre-Soviet era was different from what it is today.

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Austria 5

Austria

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The flag of Austria has three equal horizontal bands of red, white, and red. The Austrian triband is based on the coat of arms of the Babenberg dynasty, recorded in the 13th century. It may have seen use in flags from about the 15th century, alongside the black-and-yellow colors of the House of Habsburg and other insignia of the Holy Roman Empire. It was adopted as a naval ensign in the 18th century, and as national flag in 1918.

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Torres Straits Islands 7

Torres Straits Islands

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The Torres Strait Islander Flag is an official flag of Australia, and is the flag that represents Torres Strait Islander people. It was designed in 1992 by Bernard Namok. It won a local competition held by the Islands Coordinating Council, and was recognised by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in June 1992.

The Government of Australia granted it Flag of Australia status, under the Flags Act 1953 (Cth), by proclamation on 14 July 1995.

In the 2008 proclamation, the flag “is recognised as the flag of the Torres Strait Islander people of Australia and a flag of significance to the Australian nation generally” and appointed “to be the flag of the Torres Strait Islander people of Australia and to be known as the Torres Strait Islander Flag”. The design is reproduced in Schedule 1 and described in Schedule 2.

The green panels at the top and the bottom of the flag symbolise the land, while the blue panel in the centre represents the waters of the Torres Strait. The thin black stripes between the green and blue panels signify the Torres Strait Islanders themselves. The white five-pointed star at the centre of the flag represents the five major island groups—the Western, Eastern, Central, Port Kennedy and (N.P.A.) Mainland—and the white dhari (dancer’s headdress) around it also symbolises the Torres Strait Islands people. White symbolises peace, while the star is a symbol for navigation.

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Northern Territory 8

Northern Territory

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The current state flag of the Northern Territory was officially adopted by the Northern Territory, Australia, in 1978. The Northern Territory has been in existence since 1911, but did not hoist its first flag until self-government in 1978.

The flag of the Northern Territory was officially acknowledged and raised for the first time in a ceremony celebrating self-government, on the esplanade in Darwin, the Territorial capital, on 1 July 1978. The ceremony was further acknowledged by a 19-gun salute from HMAS Derwent. As the Northern Territory never had colonial status or a prior flag, it was decided that an original design would be created. The flag was designed by Robert Ingpen, a prominent artist originally from Drysdale, Victoria. Ingpen used a number of designs suggested by the public as a basis for his final design.

The flag differs from the flags of the Australian states as it does not include the British Blue Ensign. The flag of the Australian Capital Territory adopted 15 years later is similar in design. The flag’s colours consist of the official Territorian colours of black, white and ochre (making it the only flag among Australia’s states and territories not to feature the colour blue). The Southern Cross appears as five white stars on a black panel at the hoist. In the fly of the flag is a stylised Sturt’s Desert Rose, the territory’s floral emblem since 1961, with seven white petals and a black seven-pointed core. The seven white petals represent the six Australian States and the Northern Territory.

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Norfolk Island Flag on Our Flagpole

Norfolk Island

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The flag of Norfolk Island was approved by the Norfolk Island Council on 6 June 1979. It became the official flag on the commencement date of the Norfolk Island Flag and Public Seal Act 1979 on 17 January 1980. The flag depicts the Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla) in a central white stripe between two green stripes.

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Lord Howe Island Flag on Our Flagpole

Lord Howe Island

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The Flag of Lord Howe Island is the unofficial flag of the island, an unincorporated area of New South Wales administered by the Lord Howe Island Board. The unofficial flag of Lord Howe Island, which was designed by Sydney-based vexillologist John Vaughan, was first flown in November 1998. The yellow center of the flag evokes the island’s topography and depicts a Kentia palm, while the surrounding area of flag utilizes the pre-1801 Union Jack, excluding the red of St George’s Cross.

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