Later this year there will be much flag-waving taking place across Great Britain; expect to see a sea of Union Jacks around Buckingham Palace and in the Olympic Stadium as Diamond Jubilee and Olympic fever grips the nation.
The world is full of flags; great ones and strange ones. This is a collection of twenty flags that just have to be shared!
Nepal

Nepal is literally the only country without a rectangular flag. Some people just have to be different!
Arkansas

For obvious reasons there is no way that you could confuse the Arkansas flag with any other flag.
Lombardy, Italy

This looks like a four-leaf clover, or a dog’s footprint, or a few splashes of rain merged together, or maybe it looks like nothing at all…
Fryslan, Netherlands

This is a nice, happy flag but you would have thought that the Fryslan flag designer would make a better effort at drawing the hearts!
The Great Socialist People’s flag of Libya

I managed to find a copy of the Libyan flag, but if that had proved to be difficult, I could simply have painted a big swathe of green in Microsoft Paint!
Mozambique

Strangely this flag has a rifle and a scythe placed on top of a book. Could they not have used a bookmark instead?
Northern Marianas Island

Drop us a line if you understand what this mysterious flag signifies. Is that a figure in a grey robe standing behind the star?
Kyrgyzstan

The pronunciation of the name of the country might be tricky, but the design of the flag is not. We think it’s a small baseball being thrown out of the sun.
Bhutan

It’s hard to understand why a country would want to represent itself in the 21st century with a made-up creature - especially one which looks like it has feet made from small logs.
Antwerp

This is so bad I can barely look at it! What was Antwerp thinking?!
America

A flag with a star to represent each state seems like a good idea. Unfortunately America regularly changes the number of states it has – meaning that the flag has to be re-designed each time.
Cyprus

Firstly, use the space you have on your flag! Secondly, it’s not as if Cyprus has a memorable shape. They surely could have come up with something better!
Antarctica

Antarctica might need to liven up their flag a little! Why not put a polar bear right in the middle? Or perhaps there’s already one there?
Poland

The Polish flag is a game of two halves – the top half is white and the bottom half is red. This makes it easy to spot when it’s being flown upside down.
New England

Here’s the flag of New England - a garish combination of the Australian, American, English and European flags, with a Christmas tree thrown in for good measure.
Nevada

Here’s the old American flag of Nevada. Did you know that they dug for gold and silver in Nevada? You do now!
Uganda

There’s not much you can say about the Ugandan flag except that it’s loud and there’s a strange bird in the middle of it! That’s it!
Dominica

Is an annoying squawky parrot really a suitable symbol for a country’s flag? At least it looks cheerful.
Tamil Eelam

This flag has an angry-looking tiger and two bayonets. Very scary.
Benin

This particular example of the Benin National Flag lasted until 1897. We can see why it was changed!
Written by James Christie who writes for craft supplies company Yellow Moon.



