FIFA Women’s World Cup – A Fun Facts About Flags special – Group E

We hope you’ve been enjoying the football on display in the FIFA Women’s Football World Cup! We’re celebrating the competition with a series of posts bringing you fun facts about the flags of the teams in each group.

Today, we’re looking at the flags of the countries in Group E: Netherlands, Portugal, United States and Vietnam.

Netherlands

The flag of the Netherlands has three horizontal stripes in red, white and blue.

Did you know:

• The Dutch flag is not allowed to be flown at night – though one work-around is that it the flag post must be well-lit.
• There’s a second, lesser known flag of the Netherlands. This one has an orange stripe instead of red.
• The Dutch flag inspired the flag of Luxembourg, which used to be part of the Netherlands.

Portugal

The flag of Portugal has two vertical stripes. A dark green stripe comprises two-fifths of the flag, with the red stripe taking up the remaining three-fifths. The coat of arms of Portugal is centred over the colour joining.

Did you know:

• 

  The coat of arms on the flag has seven castles and five blue shields on it.

• The very first Portuguese flag was designed and implemented in 1095 but has changed several times, dramatically, since then! The current flag was introduced on June 30th, 1911.
• The flag was designed by a painter, a journalist and a writer along with two Republic Revolutionists.

United States

The flag of the United States has thirteen horizontal stripes alternating in red and white. In the top-left corner there is a blue rectangle with 50 white stars on it.

Did you know:

• It’s commonly known that the fifty stars represent the 50 US states, but you may not know the 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies that became the first states.
• The first flag of the United States was made by the seamstress of George Washington.
• Every time a new state has joined the Union, a star has been added to the flag – so there have been 27 versions of the flag!

Vietnam

The flag of Vietnam has a red background with a yellow five-pointed star in the centre.

Did you know:

• In Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, there is a flag-raising ceremony each morning at 6am.
• The star on the flag is sometimes known as the Star of Victory, symbolising the country’s victory over colonialism.
• Until their unification in 1975, North and South Vietnam had their own flags. A version of the current flag was the flag of North Vietnam from its independence from France in 1945.

Check back in the coming days when we’ll be exploring fun facts about the flags of the country’s in Group F of the FIFA Women’s World Cup: Brazil, France, Jamaica and Panama.