Modern Heraldry (Part II)

I waxed poetic about my love of flags and my appreciation for the fact that the recent trend in graphic design has led to better and more beautiful flags in America. Today I’m going to go a little more global and show you how the rest of the world does symbols.

I start out with the newest Mississippi state flag because it’s gorgeous; a little busy in the middle, but not terribly so. For those of you wondering, why did Mississippi need a new state flag, well… it’s because it was the last Southern state to have the Confederate battle flag appearing somewhere on it (previous one being Georgia, although some folks will say that the Alabama and Florida flags still have a similar design). I don’t agree with the decision, but now both states have much better and interesting flags.

Different countries have different heraldry. Naturally, most Western countries (or countries colonized by Europe) use Western heraldry and build their coats of arms accordingly. Which is why there’s a depressingly high number of tricolors throughout Africa, but the further east you go, the more interesting designs get. India has a tricolor, because it’s based on the Irish flag (not making that up–an Irishwoman helped a lot with Indian independence).

Japan has great heraldry, partly because they had their own tradition to call upon, and partly because they were never colonized. So if you see all the prefecture flags (just above), they look every similar to samurai heraldry–simple symbol, no words, independently hanging in the middle of a colored field. I love it.

Thailand was also never colonized (because it sat between French and British spheres of influence and was left as a neutral zone), so its heraldry is also unique. Their ministry symbols have gorgeous art. When I lived there for a year, it was one of the cool little things that I noticed. It’s a monarchy, so there’s a tradition of heraldry, but unlike Japan, it’s a tradition that only dates back 350 years. I’m sure it’s based on Ayutthaya patterns which is much older.

As you can guess, I love this topic, but I’m gonna stop myself, because I’m rather a neophyte when it comes to heraldry and vexillology. But what do you think? Is this rather silly thing to be interested in or are you just excited as me? Let me know in the comments below! And if you’re excited about this, you’ll just LOVE my books. But if you’re not ready to jump into my writing, why not download my stories instead? You’ll be glad you did.