Posted on December 3, 2017
The term "Flag Day," in Singapore, means the day that a particular charity goes out in full force to ask for donations.
Of course, people can donate to a charity any day of the year - especially now that we have the internet! But each charity's Flag Day is a day when that charity urges volunteers to set up booths or even go door-to-door, raising awareness of a particular need, informing people of their past achievements, and urging people to donate money.
So...even though today is the anniversary of Singapore's adoption of its flag, we cannot call it "Flag Day."
Singapore became self-governing within the British Empire in 1959, and this city-state / island nation needed a flag. This national symbol had to combine ideas from the diverse population - about three-quarters of Chinese descent, and minorities of Malay, Indian, and European heritage.
The past flag of Singapore looked pretty much all British:
The past flag of Singapore looked pretty much all British:
In designing the new flag, Singapore residents who had Chinese heritage wanted to echo the five stars and red color of the Chinese flag...
Muslim activists requested the use of a crescent moon, which is common in Muslim countries but very rare in non-Muslim countries. I read that Islam is the religion of only about 14% of Singapore residents, but nearby Malaysia is majority Muslim. From 1962 to 1965, Singapore merged with Malaysia - and the seeds of this merger were no doubt very apparent during the 1969 flag design. |
| Singapore is located on the tip of the peninsula that is Malaysia. |
The Singapore flag combines the color red, five stars, and a crescent moon:
The symbolism is said to be:
Red for universal brotherhood, equality of all people.
White for everlasting purity and virtue.
Crescent moon for a young nation rising in importance.
Five stars to represent the national values of democracy, peace, progress, justice, and equality.
By the way...
I think it is interesting that crescent moons are so often illustrated with stars or suns inside the arms of the crescent...
...when our actual crescent Moon is just the small sunlit portion of the moon, which is also a rocky sphere in space. So we could never see stars or anything else within the arms of the crescent - unless of course it was nearer to the Earth than the Moon!
Sometimes Earthshine on the part of the Moon that is not lit by the Sun shows us the entire sphere, but the sphere is always there...
In a flag, of course, as opposed to an illustration, including a star or sun within the arms of a crescent is just a part of good layout design.
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