Flags with sun and moon: from Argentina to Nepal

The sun and the moon are ancient symbols, and they have found their way onto a surprising number of national flags. Sometimes it is a plain disc, sometimes a sun with a face, sometimes a fine crescent beside a star. Here are the main celestial bodies on the world's flags. In a quiz such a sign is worth its weight in gold, because it narrows the field at once.

The Sun of May in Argentina and Uruguay

Argentina's flag carries the Sun of May in the centre, a golden sun with a human face and 32 rays, alternating straight and wavy. It recalls the May Revolution of 1810. Uruguay shows the same face-bearing sun in the upper corner, along with nine blue and white stripes for its nine original departments. Two neighbours, one symbol, and in both cases the sun looks you straight in the eye. Its face goes back to an Inca depiction of the sun, and makes it unmistakable among all the sun flags.

The rising sun

The best known is Japan's Hinomaru: a red disc on a white field, simply the sun and nothing else. Bangladesh uses a similar red disc on green, shifted slightly towards the mast so that it sits centred when the flag flies. Other countries let the sun send out rays: Namibia places a golden twelve-rayed sun in the corner, the Philippines a sun with eight rays and three stars, and Kiribati sends a bird wheeling above a rising sun. Kazakhstan sets a radiant sun above a steppe eagle, and Kiribati's seventeen sun rays stand for the sixteen Gilbert Islands and Banaba.

Nepal, sun and moon at once

Nepal is unique on two counts. It is the only national flag that is not rectangular, made instead of two pennants stacked one above the other. And it carries both bodies: a white crescent moon in the upper pennant, a white sun in the lower one. Until 1962 the moon and sun even had faces. The pair is read as a wish that the country may last as long as the sun and moon themselves. The deep crimson is Nepal's national colour, the blue border stands for peace, and the unusual shape came about when two once-separate pennants were joined into one flag.

The crescent and its star

The crescent moon, usually together with a star, turns up on many flags. Turkey shows it white on red, Tunisia inside a white disc, Pakistan beside a broad green field. Singapore pairs a crescent with five stars, Malaysia with a fourteen-pointed star. The origin is worth a note: the crescent is far older than its present meaning, appeared back in antiquity, and only became a widespread symbol through the Ottoman Empire. Azerbaijan pairs the crescent with an eight-pointed star, and Malaysia's fourteen-pointed star stands for its thirteen states plus the federal government. Today the crescent is often associated with the Muslim world.

• Argentina: golden Sun of May with a face in the white band.
• Japan: a red sun disc on a white field.
• Nepal: moon on top, sun below, the only non-rectangular national flag.
• Turkey: a white crescent and star on red.
• Singapore: a crescent with five stars.
• Namibia: a golden sun with twelve rays.

Why this helps in a quiz

A celestial body is a strong clue. A sun with a face almost always points to South America, a single red disc to Japan or Bangladesh, a crescent and star to a whole group of countries that you then tell apart by their colours. Nepal you recognise by its shape alone anyway. Even a plain sun often gives away the world region.

In CountryRush you train exactly that eye for detail, from the sun to the crescent. The Daily Trip brings fresh flags every day, some with sky, some without.