Technically, any quadrant is considered a canton, but in practice, the upper right is the one used most often.
As per my earlier comments, if I were to design a flag, I wouldn't use a canton-jazz design. Not my thing.
These are some of the most well known canton-festooned flags around:
The first is Uruguay. Uruguay is fun because it uses the colors of the South (and Central) American independence movement along with a Sol de Mayo. This is the only flag from South America that uses a canton-jazz national flag design.
Next we have Samoa. Seen in the canton is the Southern Cross, which implies that the island nation is below the equator. I have mixed feelings about the Southern Cross: on the one hand, I'm all for constellations being used for national symbol identities; but the fact that it's a constellation of a religious symbol is what gets me.
Out of all the designs of our own national flag, I like the old-school Betsy Ross one the best. Something about the circle of stars just feels right.
Next is the only canton-festooned national flag from Europe: Greece. I like to think of the colors as the blue sky and ocean and the white villages perched on cliffs stuck between the sky and ocean.
Then we get to the Chinese pair. The first is the current Chinese flag, with the stars in the canton, and you can get a look of what having things in the canto cam be like without the area clearly delineated.
And then we have Taiwan. I read that this flag used to fly over mainland china before the revolution, and is being flown currently in Taiwan. I'm still looking into that. They use a sun, like Uruguay, but not a Sol de Mayo.
And lastly we have the menacing flag from my childhood, the USSR. The red star and sickle & hammer are the symbols for socialist revolution, and this flag was used as a symbol for just that by leftist rebels around the world as well as an evil boogeyman back here in the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment