Every Day Is Special: May 14 - Flag Day of Paraguay

May 14 - Flag Day of Paraguay

Posted on May 14, 2019

Tomorrow is often listed as Paraguay's Independence Day, but May 14 is the actual anniversary of the South American nation's independence from Spain, in 1811. It's such a big deal - the start of a new nation! - that Paraguayans celebrate for two days!

Paraguay's flag is different from every other flag in the world - because there is something different on the two different sides!

The obverse displays the national coat of arms, and the reverse displays the seal of the treasury.

I read that Paraguayans chose red, white, and blue stripes, inspired by either the Dutch flag or the French flag (or both?). The colors are said to stand for independence and liberty.

It occurred to me that there are a LOT of flags that are red, white, and blue:

Play a quiz game to identify the nations.
Plus, there are a few more red, white, and blue
flags - but they have yellow stars, or green details,
or some other teensy bit of color in some detail:
Fiji, Serbia, Slovenia. Plus other red-white-and-blue
flags that have yellow suns, stars, or crescent
moons include Malaysia and the Philippines.

Flag of the Netherlands

The Netherlands was surely an influence for some other flags, color-wise, because it was adopted much earlier than most current flags. Many nations have used the sort of horizontal-striped tricolor of the Netherlands, and many other nations have used the sort of vertical-striped tricolor of France.