Sun, Star, Cross or Plant? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sun

A horizontal triband of light blue (top and bottom) and white field; charged with a Sun of May centred on the white band.
Designed by Manuel Belgrano
Adopted: 1816

A triband refers to three bands of colours in either two or three different colours. The 'field' is the background colour and a 'charge' is a symbol or emblem that appears on the field.

There is not an official explanation of the chosen colours on the flag. It is a common belief that they represent the sky, clouds and the sun but the sun did not appear on it until 1818. Historians now believe that that the blue represents the House of Bourbon and the Spanish Order of Charles III to show their support and allegiance to King Ferdinand VII of Spain whom Napoleon had imprisoned.

The Sun of May is a national symbol of both Argentina and Uruguay and appears on both of their flags. It represents Inti the Incan sun god. Legend claims that when they had won their independence from the Spanish Empire in May 1810 the sun broke through the clouds on them.

Answer: Sun

A horizontal bicolour of red and blue field; charged with the yellow frigate bird flying over the rising sun with seventeen rays, centred on the upper half and three white wavy horizontal stripes on the lower half.
Designed by Arthur Grimble
Adopted: 1979.

Kiribati is a Pacific Ocean Island country which is represented with the blue and white waves on the lower background. The three white lines represent the Gilbert, Phoenix and Line archipelagos that make up the country. The rising sun represents its position on the equator and its 17 rays are the number of islands it has. Flying above the sun the frigate bird stands for power and freedom.

Answer: Sun

The field is a horizontal tricolour of light blue (double width), yellow and green; charged with a yellow sun in the upper-fly side corner
Designed by Alphonse Kirimobenecyo
Adopted: 2001

The 'hoist' of a flag is the side that lies against the flagpole. The opposite end is referred to as the 'fly'.

Rwanda changed its flag in 2001 as it believed its previous one invoked memories of the 1994 genocide. The light blue symbolises peace and happiness, the yellow is for economic development and the green for prosperity. The yellow sun, which has 24 rays, represents enlightenment.

Answer: Star

A blue Star of David between two horizontal blue stripes on a white field.
Traditional historic design.
Adopted: 1948.

The blue and white stripes of the flag symbolise the tallit, the traditional Jewish prayer shawl that traditionally has blue (or black) stripes throughout its white background.

In general blue characterizes stability, trust, loyalty, faith, truth and tranquillity while white denotes goodness, purity, innocence, faith, safety and light.
Specifically in Jewish culture the blue represents Gevurah, God's sense of justice and the white, Chessed, His benevolence.

The Star of David, a six pointed star, is a widely acknowledged symbol of Judaism and the Jewish people. It originates from the Seal (or ring) of Solomon which was a signet ring belonging to the wise king of Israel of which many traditions and legends abound.

Answer: Star

A red field charged with a green pentagram, five-pointed linear star.
Designed by Mawlay Yusef
Adopted: 1915.

Prior to 1915 the flag was a solid red field. Historically many Muslim country flags were a plain colour denoting which dynasty that they were associated with. Morocco is a descendant of the Alawid dynasty whose colour was red. It is also said to represent the blood of their ancestors.

The green pentagram star in the centre represents the five pillars of Islam and also links it to the Seal of Solomon whose star can be either a pentagram or hexagon.

Answer: Star

A field of a horizontal triband of yellow, green and red; charged with a large white five-pointed star at the centre.
Adopted: 2010

Myanmar has quite a long history of changes to its flag as it fought for independence from British Rule and Burmese Dynasties. In 1930 the independence movement adopted a tricolour whose colours represented:

Yellow for Buddhism and education, green for crops, minerals and jewellery and red for bravery or courage. Over the following years it was charged with many different forms of a peacock and the hammer and sickle.

The 2010 used the same colours but placed different interpretations on them. Their 2010 Union Flag Law includes the definition of the flag:

"The current flag is a horizontal tricolour flag of yellow, green and red charged with a five-pointed white star in the centre of the field. The background is a yellow, green, and red tricolour, meant to honour the tricolours used during the independence struggle. The yellow represents unity, conformity, wisdom, happiness, and unity of all national races amicably. The green symbolises fertility, conformity, fairness, and being a peaceful, pleasant, and green nation. The red represents bravery and decisiveness. The white star stands for purity, honesty, fullness of compassion, and power."

Answer: Cross

Red field charged with a white cross in the centre
Adopted: 1882

The red background of the flag remains from a 13th century blood banner used in war and adopted by the Swiss canton of Schwyz. The white cross was added the next century to any Swiss flag or uniform that belonged to what was known as the Old Confederacy, "that of Schwyz was eventually adopted by the whole country.

The Swiss Federal council in 1889 declared its symbolism as being both a religious symbol and representing the Old Confederacy. The white cross has also changed many times beginning as a thin cross that touched all edges to the much thicker shorter cross that is used today.

It is also one of only two countries that have a square national flag, the other being Vatican City.

Answer: Cross

A white-fimbriated symmetric red cross on a blue field with a white-fimbriated counter changed saltire of red and white.
Adopted: 1801

A saltire is a diagonal cross. Fimbriation refers to small strips of a different contrasting colour around a charge. St Georges and St Patricks crosses are both said to be fimbriated in white on the UK flag. Although this is technically true - the white around the St Patricks Cross is because it is sitting on top of the St Andrews Cross.

The Union Jack, as it is referred to, combines the flags of its countries. England has the Cross of St George (red on white), Scotland's St Andrews Cross (white saltire on blue) and St Patrick on Irelands (red saltire on white). Wales is not represented as it was still politically a part of England at the time.

There are two theories as to the term 'Union Jack'. One states it began when St James VI of Scotland became James I of England and united the two countries and they were thus 'united under Jacobus', the Latin version of James.

The other is from maritime history. Ships fly their countries ensigns high on their stern while their official flags can be flown on a shorter jackstaff on the bow.

Answer: Cross

A blue field charged with a yellow Nordic cross that extends to the edges; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side.
Adopted: 1906.

Sweden have used blue and gold as their national colours from at least as far back as the 13th century when King Magnus IIIs coat of arms included them. There are many legends and different variations of history within the Scandinavian countries about its origin.

The first legal description of the flag was made in a royal warrant of 19 April 1562 as "yellow in a cross fashioned on blue". In 1569 the royal warrant stated that the yellow cross was always to be borne on Swedish battle standards and banners.

The cross is a Nordic Cross which refers to one whose horizontal line is central but the vertical is closer to the left side than the right.

Answer: Plant

A vertical field triband of red (hoist-side and fly-side) and white (double width); charged with the red maple leaf centred on the white band.
Designed by George F. G. Stanley
Adopted: 1965.

The Canadian flag is horizontally symmetrical and thus both the obverse (front) and reverse (back) are identical. This is because of its unique measurements. The white is exactly half the size of the field and placed exactly in the centre of the two smaller red sides flanking it.

The width of the maple leaf is also twice its height with eleven symmetrical points. These have no special significance, both the number and arrangement of them were chosen after testing in a wind tunnel to see which was most visible in high winds.

King George V proclaimed the Royal Arms for Canada in 1921 and named its colours as red and white after the colours of the St George Cross and these were kept by the Commonwealth. The maple leaf had been in use as a Canadian emblem for centuries and was first used as a national symbol in 1868 when both Ontario and Quebec used it on their coat of arms.

Answer: Plant

A horizontal triband field of red, white (double height) and red; charged with a green Lebanese cedar tree.
Designed by Henri Philippe Pharaoun
Adopted: 1943

Lebanon's flag is similar to Canadas as the colour and ratio of its stripes are exactly the same except Lebanon's are horizontal. The white centre represents snow and a symbol of purity while the reds symbolise the blood that had been shed while fighting their invaders.

The centre has the green cedar, also known as the Lebanese cedar, which touches each of the red stripes and is one third the width of the flag.
The Cedar of Lebanon is mentioned 77 times within the Bible, the most well-known probably being:

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon" (NIV. Psalms 92:12)

Answer: Plant

A red isosceles triangle based on the hoist-side pointed towards the fly-side divided into two right triangles where the upper triangle is green and the lower triangle is blue with the Emblem of Eritrea from 1952 to 1995 in yellow; in other words, a vertical olive branch encircled by an olive wreath, centred on the hoist side of the triangle.
Adopted: 1995

The Red triangle goes from the entire hoist side to the middle of the flyside. This creates two triangles going from the fly side to their points at the top and bottom of the hoist. The top is all green, the bottom one is blue. The emblem is on the red field which represents the shape of the country.

The green on the flag is for the agriculture and livestock farming, the blue is for the sea and its bounty and the red is for the bloodshed spilled while fighting for its independence.

The vertical olive branch symbolises peace and the olive wreath has 30 leaves representing the 30 years they spent gaining their independence.