Weird and Unknown Flags from Around the World

Flags! One of the most common topics on JetPunk. But the flags you are going to see here are not at all common! Over the past few days, I have been trying to make a collection of weird, unusual, amusing, interesting and relatively unknown flags from around the world.

I was able to gather a little more than 40 flags from the help of the internet. I hope this collection would expand further in the next few days. If you happen to know some unknown or weird flags, let me know!

So, let's begin our voyage of the first part of this hopefully long series of unusual, weird and unknown flags from around the world. Buckle up your seat belts and enjoy the ride!

We begin with a rather unamusing flag from the west African country of Benin. It depicts two men – one alive and other who was alive until the flag was drawn. The alive man is decapitating the other man with a sword.

This is a very nonsensical and nasty flag, that's all I have to say.

North Caucasian Emirate? Never heard of it. Apparently, it was a secessionist state located in northern Caucasus in modern day Russia.

Islamic flags commonly feature a green field, a crescent and stars, but a smiley face? It was unique to this emirate. During wars, they most probably would have rotated the crescent a 180 degrees because wars are not good. 😉

We now travel to the relatively unknown city of Sogamoso in Colombia. It is known as the 'City of the Sun'. The flag is an apt visualisation of this nickname, but the Sun looks rather... childish? This is how I used to draw the Sun when I was 3 or 4. After all, drawing a circle is not everyone's cup of tea.

Ah.. the Frisian flag with its seven little hearts. Oops! Those are not hearts. They are pompeblêden or leaves of the yellow water-lily, which according to the officials should never be drawn in shapes of a heart.

Well, I love this flag even if those leaves are abode of frogs!

Let's travel to Russia! At first glance, this looks like a plain mountain which is mysteriously coloured golden. But if you look carefully, you would notice a golden bear atop it. I'm not sure what it is doing though. Maybe the mountain is carved that way, or maybe it is sleeping or maybe trying to get some oil from below the mountain. Wait, did I say oil? Why?

Apparently, Russia's first oil refinery was built at Ilsky, which is depicted with a black drop falling from the mountain.

It looks like this bear is entangled in a mess. This is what I first thought after looking this flag. Although, it's not a mess. It is an atom! Yes, an atom! Zheleznogorsk, Russia was established for the production of weapons-grade plutonium and was kept a secret until 1992!

But why is that atom so big? We are taught that atoms are so small that they cannot be seen even with a microscope! I think this bear found a life-size model of an atom near a factory and somehow got entangled into the mess or the electron orbits and is trying to rip the nucleus believing that he would find protons or honey inside. Too sciency?

Well, Russia loves bear. So much that its President can often be seen riding a bear shirtless! Anyway, this bear with an axe and its right hand slightly raised as if it is saying hello to an old accomplice or trying to get a taxi to stop so that it could reach the battleground and drive away other bears with the axe.

Another flag from Russia but this one has no bear. So what is it? Butter? A bar of gold? According to a website, this is a bar of soap! Shuya was a major flax processing centre. So, maybe it is a small carton full of flax. How interesting, isn't it?

The snake flag is from the Indian state of Manipur. Well, not a lot of people know about this flag. This is probably a never-ending snake. It is definitely ranked as one of the best flags!

The flag of the Assyrian people. This flag looks great from every corner but that symbol in the top kind of destroys the simplicity of this flag. A pretty classy flag!

Woah woah.. that is a murderous catfish. It looks like it is dashing towards you just to bite your flesh off or maybe sting you. It looks like the people of Somovskoe adore catfish. All hail the catfish and Russia!

This flag made some great buzz during the Flag Debate of New Zealand, though it didn't get a lot of votes, I believe. If this flag would have become the national flag, all the enemies of New Zealand (I doubt if there's even one, but anyway) would be too scared of this humble bird, its people and of course, the Black Caps (their cricket team, they deserve more)!

This is one of those rare flags which dare to compete Bhutan with its badass-ness, if that is a word. I mean, look at it! How often do you see a phoenix on a flag? This is the best Russian flag I've seen until now and is a compensation for all the weird Russian flags you saw before.

I love this flag very much! The clear winner of this part!

Phew! That was it! 13 unusual and unknown flags from the world. Well, most of them were from Russia, so I would like to proclaim Russia as the "Land of Weird Flags". And there are more flags from this land! The list that I have prepared has as much as ten more flags from Russia.

Anyway, there's an announcement that I would like to make. The highly anticipated (I'm doubtful) sequel of the Flags for Planets blog of mine is being written and will hopefully be out by later this month or Early January. It took a long time, but anyway, it is coming. Consider it as the New Year's Gift from me! ;)

Now, back to this blog. How many of these flags were you aware about? Do you think this is a good idea? Should I make a part two? Will this blog help me get a top notch spot in this week's Blog Games? I'd like to know your answers. Please comment below. Until then, goodbye, tschüss and sayonara! 👋