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2023-05-25 14:11 dustin  
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i think the brazilian flag is one of the most interesting ones in the world, the main reason being the very detailed star map in the middle! :d  
  
brazil was declared a republic in 1889, and i find it especially interesting to see what was kept and what was changed in the flag from the empire to the republic era!  
  
meaning of the colors:  
the green rectangle and the yellow rhombus were already there when brazil was still an empire.  
| green: house of braganza, pedro I, first emperor of brazil  
| yellow: house of habsburg, empress maria leopoldina, pedro's wife  
pedro i himself gave the colors a very "brazilian" meaning:  
| green = brazilian nature (amazon rainforest!)  
| yellow (gold) = numerous mineral resources  
  
these unpolitical, geography-based meanings may have been a main reason why this part of the flag - green rectangle, yellow rhombus - was maintained after the declaration of the republic.  
after all, the blue circle in the middle, which replaced the imperial arms, was "republic-ish" enough (see below!)  
  
| blue = color of the sky (obviously)  :d  
| the stars (\\\) are naturally supposed to be yellow.  
| the curved ΖΖΖ band would be white.  
  
so what's so "republic-ish" about that blue circle? two aspects in particular:  
  
| 1. the position of the stars  
...are an exact map of the starry sky over rio de janeiro on nov 15, 1889, at 8:30 a.m., which is the time and place of the declaration of the republic. the map is inverted, so as if you would look from "outside the cosmos" directly on rio, reverentially watching this historical moment!  
  
| 2. "ordem e progresso" (order and progress)  
the official brazilian motto actually stands on the curved band in the middle (i just didn't have enough space to place it there!). its meaning is very general:  
\ "order" menas the maintenance of all good things.  
\ "progress" means finding ways to improve the order.  
the motto is taken from a philosophical movement called "positivism". if i get it right, then one idea behind this ideology is that "good things" can be sensed by all humans using no more than our five natural senses and our logic abilities, which means that it's not necessary that one or a few rulers tell the people what is good and what isn't. so here we have a strong connection to the ideas behind a republic!   
  
there are a lot more interesting aspects about the blue stellar map:  
  
| many (parts of) real star constellations of the southern hemisphere can be found on the flag.   
  
| the "southern cross", one of the most famous and characteristic sothern constellations, can be seen right in the middle surrounding ^'s start position!  
if you consider the five closest \\\\\ around ^, then four of them clearly form a horizontal-vertical cross. (the fifth star also belongs to the constellation, but it's clearly smaller than the others.)  
  
| the overall count of stars (27) intentionally equals the count of brazilian states (26 plus the federal district including the capital brasilia).  
  
| also, there's a definite official 1-by-1 correlation between the stars and the states. for example:  
 \ the biggest star of the cross (acrux, the one below ^) also belongs to the biggest state, sao paulo.  
 \ the second-biggest star of the cross (mimosa, directly to ^'s right) is connected to rio de janeiro, where also the declaration of the republic took place.  
 \ funnily, the federal district with the capital brasilia belongs to the smallest star, the one below the cross (the bottom-most of all the stars). this star is barely visible with the pure eyes in reality! however, it's still a very special star because it marks the celestial southpole, which means that all the other stars are turning around it.   
 \ another striking star is the only star above the curved band. it's the biggest star of the zodiac sign virgin, and it belongs to one of the most northern states (para). its location above the band symbolizes the fact that brazil slightly extends over the equator into the northern hemisphere. (however, the real virgin star is actually still in the southern celestial hemisphere, so the curved band can n o t be identified with the celestial equator!)  
  
| other more or less famous stars and constellations:  
 \ sirius, the brightest star of the sky, is the second \ which ^ would collect if he moves straight left from the start. it's also called the "dog star" as it belongs to the constellation "greater dog".  
 \ the dense mass of eight stars at the south-east edge of the circle form a big part of the zodiac sign scorpio.  
 \ on the bottom-left side of scorpio, there are three stars forming the "southern triangle".  
  
all in all, it's really a cool flag with all those details about the starry sky, isn't it? if you want a map of the southern celestial hemisphere, forget about buying a celestial globe - just look at the brazilian flag! :d