English Speaking in Oceania

I have two flags here that show off two concepts that I'll be touching on again later: 1) the Southern Cross; and 2) an object in the canton.

This is neither a Southern Cross post, nor is it a canton post specifically, but they're both here.

And, these flags represent the two nations in Oceania that speak English:

That first one: Australia.

This second one: New Zealand.

One way to easy tell the difference, if you see only one, would be the colors of the stars. Australia uses seven-point stars to represent the seven provinces, and the large single star that isn't part of the constellation represents the federal government. New Zealand uses five-point stars, and doesn't have the tiny Epsilon Cru star in the constellation.

That constellation is called the Southern Cross. It's visible in the southern hemisphere, and as a constellation, appears on many flags. In fact, if you see that constellation in a flag, you can be sure it lives under the equator, or mostly.

The UK flag sitting in the corner is in a position called the canton. There are plenty of flags with things in the canton. Ours is the main flag that comes to mind. Actually, any one of the four quadrants is called a canton, but most flags simple use the upper left canton as the main spot for adornments.

Personally, I'm not a fan of national flags that have canton jazz. It's irrational, but I mostly prefer non-canton flags. I'll have a post on that later.

I picked this topic because it would let me introduce the canton, the Southern Cross, and it would let me put Australia and New Zealand right next to each other on a blog. Sweet.