Wizard Flags

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

I got the impression, at the Quidditch World Cup scene, that the 
wizard folk wave Muggle national flags when they're feeling 
nationalistic, altho' of course all those professional Quidditch
teams in QTTA could have their own flags.

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., pengolodh_sc at y... wrote:

> http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/sj-arms.html
>
> At the very least, the crown would have to go, and possibly the
> lion should change tincture as well, to  distance the user of the 
> flag/coat of arms from any perception that the user claims any 
> position or role in Norwegian government. 

I think the wizard folk wouldn't care what any Muggles think and 
would take it for granted that their only possible connection with
the Norwegian (or any other) Muggle government or royal family 
would be to occasionally give them helpful advice. IE I doubt the 
wizarding folk care about the part of the rules of heraldry about not 
impinging on arms belonging to some Muggle.
 
> Another flag worth looking at is the official flag of FOTW 
> http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ 

That is very much how I envision the logo of the Sweetwater All Stars 
professional Quidditch team: a star made of stars, except I think the 
Sweets should have SEVEN stars because there are seven players / 
positions on the team. The only ways I can think to squeeze in a 
seventh is either as a large star which is background to all the 
others or a small star which sits on the middle of the middle star.

> For flags with dragons, Wales has an interesting flag: 
> http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb-wales.html

"The supporters of the English royal arms were a lion and a dragon, 
but the latter was replaced by a unicorn for Scotland by the Stuarts"

which is the reason for the Alice in Wonderland poem about 'the lion 
and the unicorn were fighting for the crown'.

Isn't there a tradition of erroneously calling the Welsh dragon a 
gryffin?

> > If flags for wizarding countries do exist - in tandem with
> > national flags perhaps, I suspect they'd be very ornate
> > creations, with lots of pictures and symbols on them - in
> > complicated designs - nothing like a standard Muggle tricolour.
> I suspect otherwise - the prime function of a flag is to identify 
> something from a distance - that really doesn't change for wizards. 

I disagree with both of you. Simple and visible from a distance, yes. 
The same old tricolors, no. In general, Muggles adopted tricolors to 
replace using the old royal flag when they had removed the old royal 
family, and the many of the old royal flags were much more visually 
interesting, such as the French fleur-de-lises. The wizarding folk 
are conservative and baroque and might replace fleur-de-lis with 
grape bunch and wine bottle, but not with plain stripes.

Hey, maybe Beauxbaton's blue uniforms are connected to the blue 
background of the fleur-de-lis flag!

> The Commonwealth Games flag seems typical to me of a flag that
> speaks of some sort of authority, While the Commonwealth-flag seems
> aimed more at symbolising unity or cooperation.  

Why? They're both blue backgrounds with some yellow stuff in the 
middle, and the Commonwealth stuff is less busy-busy than the 
Commonwealth Games stuff (probably because it doesn't have letters 
on it: I generally hate letters on flags or arms). In fact, I think 
the Commonwealth flag is rather clever (altho' reminiscent of the 
state flag of Colorado): removing some sunburst rays to result in 
a C.