Flags as Icons of Identity

Flags  are often symbols or totems that signify a shared identity (Eriksen and Jenkins 2007). Some national flags  contain symbols that declare their identity  with a religion—such as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism or Judaism—or an idealistic  philosophy or political affiliation, such as communism. Islamic nations often  contain a flag with a crescent moon and a star (Knowlton 2012; Znamierowski 2000). Likewise, many  Christian nations’ flags have crosses  (Knowlton, 2012). There are also many national flags featuring depictions of  stars (Znamierowski 2002). The first national flag to include stars was that of the United States  of America; it symbolized a “new  constellation” (Knowlton 2012: 78). The flag, often known as the Stars and  Stripes, contains fifty stars that represent the fifty states  that make up the republic. While the original  flag had only thirteen stars, more were added   as states were added to the republic, with the statehood of Hawaii bringing the number of stars to the  current number of fifty in 1960. There is no correlation between any particular star on the flag with a  specific state (Knowlton 2012)—only the number of  stars has political or national significance. Several other nations use the  number of stars to symbolize the number  of states or provinces they have, including  the Federated States of Micronesia, Venezuela and Syria. Other peoples or  nations indicate that their geographic location is important or significant to  their identity by depicting a constellation. For example, the Southern Cross is displayed prominently on the flags of  Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Papua New Guinea, indicating that their  location in the Southern Hemisphere is of national significance (Knowlton 2012).

Some flags exhibit  a combination of both astronomical and numeric symbolism. For example,  the Australian flag combines the Southern Cross,  signifying its geographic location, with the  seven-pointed Commonwealth star. Similarly,  the Brazilian flag is a combination of a political framework and  a historical astronomical phenomenon. Although the  twenty-seven stars on the flag correlate to the number of states and territories that make up the Republic  of Brazil, it is unique in that it displays the stars as they would  have appeared from the nation’s  capital at the exact point in time the republic was declared (Duarte 2010; Kindersley 2005). The creators  of the republican flag intended  to represent the stars in the sky of Rio de Janeiro at 8:30 a.m. on November 15,  1889, at which point the greater arm of the Southern Cross was vertical and coincident with the  meridian of Rio de Janeiro (Duarte 2010). Interestingly, the astronomical depiction on the flag is also unique in that the stars are portrayed as a vertical mirror image, as though they were being viewed by a cosmic observer looking down on the  Earth (Duarte 2010; Knowlton 2012). This feature becomes  obvious when comparing the Southern Cross asterism on the Flag of Brazil with  the actual night sky or as depicted on other flags. Similarly, a careful observation of the sky viewed from Earth  shows Scorpius on left, Canis major on the right and the Southern Cross in the  center with the smallest star to  the  right of the long arm. Finally, the  stars on the flag would not have been  visible at at 8:30 am due to atmospheric  daylight.