Flags with the Southern Cross
8 national flags featuring the Southern Cross, with notes on the history and symbolism behind the design.
About Southern Cross
The Southern Cross — the constellation Crux — is visible year-round only from the southern hemisphere, and it appears on the flags of several southern-hemisphere nations as a marker of geographic identity. Australia and New Zealand both carry the Southern Cross alongside the Union Jack. Brazil shows the constellation beneath the celestial sphere on the flag adopted on the night the country became a republic in 1889 — the stars depict the night sky over Rio de Janeiro at that exact moment. Papua New Guinea and Samoa also use the constellation. The Southern Cross is one of the few astronomical features that genuinely distinguishes the southern from the northern hemisphere, and its repeated use on national flags is a quiet but persistent statement: these are nations of the southern sky.
All Flags with the Southern Cross (8)
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