What the colours and symbols on flags mean

A flag is compressed history. Read the recurring symbols and you not only guess the country, you understand why it looks the way it does.

What the colours usually say

Certain colours keep showing up with similar meaning: red often stands for blood shed in the fight for freedom, white for peace and purity, green for land, agriculture or, in many Muslim-majority countries, for Islam. Blue frequently points to sea or sky. These are not fixed rules, but surprisingly reliable rules of thumb.

Crescent and star

The crescent with a star is seen today as a symbol of Islam, but it is far older: pre-Islamic cultures in the Middle East already used the crescent moon as a religious symbol, and ancient Byzantium was dedicated to a moon goddess. It became the emblem of the Muslim world mainly through the Ottoman Empire. That is why you find it today on the flags of Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Pakistan, Malaysia and many more.

Animals and plants

• Eagle: Albania's double-headed eagle comes from Byzantine tradition; Mexico's eagle devours a snake on a cactus, an image from the founding legend of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán.
• Cedar: the cedar of Lebanon is a symbol of endurance as far back as the Bible.
• Maple leaf: Canada's trademark since 1965; before that its flag still carried the Union Jack.
• Dragon: Bhutan's thunder dragon holds jewels as a sign of wealth.

The sun

Argentina and Uruguay carry the Sun of May, a symbol of independence from Spain with a face in the middle. Japan's red circle simply stands for the rising sun, hence the name Nippon, origin of the sun.

Once you understand it, blunt memorizing turns into recognition. And recognition is exactly what CountryRush rewards, round after round.