Why No Country Has Purple on Its Flag + 2024 Blog Objectives

National pride is everywhere. From anthems to propaganda to holidays, many people around the world celebrate their country's history and international standing. An important symbol of a country is its flag. Every country has a flag that represents its culture, government, or heritage. It may have animals, a coat of arms, or religious symbols, and comes in many colors. But not purple.

Almost no country has purple on its flag. In fact, Dominica is the only country flag to have purple outside a coat of arms. Most purple in flags is found in a tiny stripe of a rainbow in a coat of arms, which is common in Mesoamerican countries. You may even argue that that hardly counts. Purple is one of the least common flag colors. But why? First, we'll have to look at a typical color palette of a flag. All but one countries have a flag that contains either red, white, or blue. The exception is Jamaica. Featuring black, green, and yellow, this flag branches off from traditional trends. So red, white, and blue are common colors. Red and blue make purple. So you could mix red and blue to make purple. Right?

A long time ago, before synthetic dyes, people had to make the colors themselves. From the red in clay, to green in leaves, to pink in avocados, natural pigment was everywhere-if you knew where to look. The only source of purple for many years was a species of snail in the Mediterranean, native to the waters near modern-day Lebanon. This snail, called the Murex, possessed mucus that contained tiny amounts of purple dye. Some people have claimed that 250,000 snails would make only one tablespoon of dye. This was very expensive, and also very anti-environmental, and probably strained local populations and ecosystems. No countries would have purple on their flag for centuries. But, as discussed above, can't you mix red and blue?

The purple from the murex was a very distinctive purple, and one of the most sought-after colors. There were other purple dyes that lasted for shorter periods of time or were different hues. But why couldn't people mix colors? Back then, the red and blues available were dark red and light blue. When combined, these would make more of a brown than a purple. The murex was the most beautiful option for purple dye, and the most common one among royals.

After a short hiatus, I have come back to JetPunk! This is my first blog since I left. I wrote it originally for a podcast format, so it might sound a little strange. I tried to edit the language to make it more blog-like.

For 2024, I, as well as many other JetPunkers, want to relaunch the blog server. We need higher quality and higher quantity blogs across all languages. If you know anyone above Level 40, ask them to help! If you know anyone who speaks a featured language fluently, encourage them to create blogs in their language! Blogs in all featured languages have declined over the years, but it doesn't have to be this way. We can bring back the Golden Age! I encourage users to start new series and come back to posting blogs if they haven't in a while. I want to see 5 or so blogs posted every day in the future by new and old users. If anybody has any suggestions to accomplish this, tell me in the comments!