Vexillology

Learn about flags that use this popular colour combination

More context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Person_Sitting_in_Darkness

Gibraltar ftw

Which is your favourite? I quite like the Mercu County one.

Which is the best?

Guide with large pics

Masterfully recreated by myself in Inkscape.

Banners formed an important means for organisations in general, and political parties in particular, to represent themselves in the Netherlands of before the Second World War. The SDAP (Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij) was the Dutch social democratic party during this period. After the War it merged into the newly founded Partij van de Arbeid (‘Party of Labour’). This party, incidentally, has recently also decided to again merge into a new party, with Groenlinks (‘Greenleft’) in 2026.

Returning to the SDAP, banners were used during demonstrations and congresses. It wasn’t just the party at a national level that had a banner: every regional section (afdeling) had their own one. These could be quite plain, like in this picture with the banner of the Leiden section of the SDAP, but also extremely intricate, with all kinds of interesting shapes and symbols (Haren, Brummen).

The banner depicted here is a flag ‘offered to the party leadership by the makers, the Van Oven Brothers, in The Hague, 16th of October 1911’. It can be seen in use in this photograph of the SDAP leadership during a party congress in 1917, showing, among others, Pieter Jelles Troelstra, who famously tried but failed to unleash a socialist revolution in the Netherlands.

It is also depicted on this ribbon, which shows some parts of the emblem in gold. From the source image and the image from the 1917 congress, I’m quite sure it should be all white, though. The ribbon reads ‘Federation of the S.D.A.P. Leadership Board - We demand universal suffrage and 8 hour [working] day.’

EDIT: You can see a whole bunch of banners here.

I'm posting a day late for Juneteenth. I did not know this flag existed until I saw it flying outside a local government office.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth_flag

It's not entirely clear to me if it's from the KJK (Komalên Jinên Kurdistanê) or the KJAR (Civaka Jinên Rojhelatî Kurdistan), or how these are related. But this flag is giving me some serious solarpunk en ecosocialism vibes!

I thought that was a corporate logo, marketing banner or something like that. Nope. It's actually a flag!

This is the flag of Henry Avery, with anarchist red below. The white bar represents sand and bones. The pirate Republic was a short-lived de facto confederation that took up the Lucayan archipelago (Bahamas).

Cool infographic

Which is the best?

Which is the best?

Koningsdag, celebrating the birthday of the Dutch king Willem-Alexander, is the national holiday of the Netherlands. It involves so-called ‘free markets’: in parks, on squares and some streets, people can lay down a blanket and freely sell their old junk. Also lots of games, little girls being paid to play the violin terribly and other (attempts at) music. It’s also tradition that the king visits one city and tries to act like a normal person while being the center of attention of what’s possibly the most awkward birthday party on the planet.

This little flag was part of the visual identity of Koningsdag in Rotterdam when Willem-Alexander visited in 2023, and it’s quite cleverly designed. It shows the green-white-green flag of Rotterdam, with superimposed orange party/birthday flags. The party-flags also turn the background into green-white-green triangles, which seem to be interlocking. This could well symbolise a connection between Rotterdam and the house of Orange. In the middle, the orange triangles are turned upside down to form a crown, also very clever. 010 is the landline phone prefix for Rotterdam, and has become sort of a nickname for the city. Maybe here the nulls are also meant to be eyes, with the one as a nose.

I couldn’t find where they handed out these flags, but I had to have one so I was glad to pick this one off the ground :p

I’m not an orangist myself, mind you. I like this flag a lot, though.

Which is the best?

For all you lovers of overcomplicated and gaudy.

This (specific) flag was apparently used until 1675. I’ve not done much looking into the history of the flag, though, I just like the flappy bits.