Everything you should know about Flags
By Ayden Ewell
Today flags are a big part of American culture, but how did this come to be? Why are Americans so obsessed with their 13 stripes and 50 stars? And do other countries share this trait?
A flag ripped down to its very core is a symbol on a stick. Usually, this symbol represents something but it doesn’t always have to. Today we use flags to represent a unified people such as the American flag representing that we Americans are united together as a country.
Flag History
I found it interesting that when I typed into google just broadly “Flag History” all I saw was the history of the American flag, the only other flag I found on the first page of Google was the Islamic flag’s history. To be honest, I couldn’t really find any other countries who treat the history of their flag so seriously, but what does this mean?
The oldest flag still here today is the one of Denmark. It’s called the Dannebrog and it goes back to the 13th century A.D. and was officially recognized as a national flag in 1625. The Dannebrog is red with a white Scandinavian cross The vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side (the side closer to the pole). The flag was used as a civil flag and ensign, this means that the flag was purely to denote their nationality.
The Importance of Flags
When I looked to see if other ethnicities were as crazy for flags as Americans were, to my surprise they weren’t. After all those cool facts about their flag, a citizen of Denmark would only use it as a convenience to show people their nationality. However I think there is still more importance in flags, I see this in pirates.
Pirates are people who commit robbery or criminal violence via boat or sea typically with the goal of stealing cargo, these people are relevant because on their boats they would always fly a black flag. A “Jolly Roger” is the term used for a pirate flag flown to identify that the pirates were about to attack, basically rendering their flag as a symbol of terror. However, this flag didn’t really actually mean anything significant to the pirates.
What have we learned? Flags are just used for practical purposes. Sadly Americans are very weird in that they value their flag very highly. This doesn’t mean flags aren’t symbols and don’t mean something, they do it’s just that contrary to what I thought people normally don’t value their flags.
