I like flags. Really. No joke. And it’s a little strange, but we all need something.
So, in order to get better at knowing about flags, and to keep blogging so Kris doesn’t kill me, I’m going to post about them on a regular basis. Probably nothing along the order of every day, but a couple times a week. Writing about them helps me learn more about them (more then just reading about them) and I can share some of my fascination with all things vexillological with everyone else.
Without further ado, I give you…
The Brazilian flag has always been one of my favorites. Good color variety, design variety, plus it includes some interesting facts about not only the founding of Brazil but its’ history as well.
The banner crossing the blue globe is “Order and Progress”, a nod to Auguste Comte, famous French sociologist, whom many of those who designed the flag found particularly worthy of mention.
The colors of the flag recall not only the green of the Amazon forests and gold of the nation, but the royal colors of Emperor Pedro I of Portugal and Empress Leopoldina of the Habsburg family.
The lozenge design (yellow diamond) also pays tribute to the old Portuguese imperial flag.
Of particular interest to me are the stars. The US flag has 50 stars for 50 states; the same is true of Brazil’s flag, but each star corresponds to a particular state, and there are five different sizes of stars. The overall pattern of stars is patterned after the night sky on November 15, 1889, the day that Brazil became an independent nation.
(Summarized from Wikipedia and my Encyclopedia of World Flags)
Amazon.com is a great source…oh, and I already have Znamierowski’s Encycolpedia on Flags)