At what time of the year is it common to see your flag being flown at normal houses?

18 comments

1. They’re usually flown at private homes on days of private celebration, like birthdays, weddings, christenings, wedding anniversaries, confirmations, and so on. At half mast when a person has died.

   Some streets take pride in remembering birthdays and anniversaries happening on the street, and then everybody on the street flies their flag (for each other, and for themselves.)

   Usually private persons don’t fly the national flag on national flag days, like Constitution Day (June 5th) or Liberation Day (May 5th,) nor do private persons fly the flag for royal birthdays, nor for the national holidays.

2. Almost never, the only times I have personally ever seen Italian flags being flown from normal houses was during the 2020 lockdown and after the victory of the national football team at the UEFA Euro 2020.

3. It’s very rare to see any flags flying at normal houses here. You might see county flags for sports like if the county was in an All Ireland Final for Gaelic Football or Hurling.

   You’ll usually only see the tricolour on public buildings, sometimes at schools and maybe on some businesses like hotels often fly multiple countries’ flags.

4. You’ll see the St George’s flag being flown a lot during the World Cup. Outside then, it’s often seen as a sign that you’re…of a [particular persuasion](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-politics-flag/in-class-obsessed-britain-tweet-of-white-van-man-hits-nerve-idUSKCN0J514U20141121).

   It’s rarer for private citizens to hang the Union Flag outside their house, except maybe on special occasions associated with royalty (e.g. marriages, jubilees, coronations etc)

5. Almost never, except maybe for the world cup when the team is on a winning streak, but even then it’s pretty rare. People who have the french flag hanging on their house for no reason are usually people you want to avoid.

6. You might see a Scottish flag when the football or rugby is on, you might see a British flag when Rangers are playing or around Orange Walk season (more common in West-Central Scotland).

   You also get the occasional person with a flag flying all the time but it’s a bit weird. Over the last year I’ve probably seen more Ukrainian flags up year round than Scottish and British combined.

7. All the time. On the countryside, many people have a flagpole in their garden and just leave it outside all the time.

   We’re not very ceremonial when it comes to the flag. Saluting or burying it after use or lighting it up during the night is not a thing outside of a military context; it’s just decoration.

   On some houses, I suspect it’s to give a nice background on photos for tourists.

   However, I don’t personally *know* any people who have such a flagpole and what their motives are.

8. The long May weekend 01-03.05 (Labour Day, Flag Day, Constitution Day) and Independence Day on 11.11 are the biggest ones. More religious people may also fly it on the Polish Armed Forces Day on 15.08, as it coincides with a Holy Mary holiday.

   There are also some people who seem to fly it year-round, but it’s quite rare.

9. Commonly you only see the flag on *Flag Days*; e.g. New Years Day, birthdays of the Royals, namedays of the Royals, the National Day, the Nobel Day, etc…

   ([List of dates](https://riksarkivet.se/flaggdagar) from the National Archive, in Swedish)

   However, in-between these days, especially in the summer, you will often see a [pennant](https://sw5851.sfstatic.io/upload_dir/pics/flag-svenske/kvadrat–Sverige-stender-vandret_2.jpg) instead of the rectangular flag.

   In and around holiday home areas an exterior [wall-mounted flag](https://thumb.mp-farm.com/18191662/preview.jpg) is often a sure sign for neighbours that you’re present. This as the flag is usually mounted when you arrive and only removed and stored before going back home.

10. Usually if Wales are in a football tournament – and between February and May for the annual Six Nations Rugby tournament.

    Of course, some people like to fly the flag year round, simply because it’s got a fucking DRAGON on it 😛

11. Mainly on official flag-days, them being:

    – January 1st
    – February 6th (Sami-day)
    – May 1st
    – May 8th (ww2 ending)
    – May 17th (constitution day, the most common)
    – June 7th (Sweden-Norway libération day)

    Also official, but I rarely see private people flag:
    – Every monarch’s birthdays
    – Jesus resurrection day
    – Olsok
    – Christmas Day

    Also common to flag during big celebrations:
    – Major birthdays, Confirmations, Weddings

    And flagging on half pole when someone dies

12. In Portugal, you usually only ever find it during the World Cup or Euro, proportionially to how much hype there is for Portugal to do well. And having flagpoles like in the Netherlands is not a thing, people just hang them from windows or balconies.

    The only place where I’ve seen flags flown from private houses for no reason was the Azores and I think that’s from US influence. They have a huge diaspora in the US, and I think some of them have come back or have holiday homes there (and also an American air base but I don’t know if that’s an influence). I sometimes saw the flags of both Portugal and the USA flown together.

13. In Hungary it’s not really a traditional thing for people to display the national flag on their own house. The flag is displayed on national holidays on public buildings (by law), and most apartment complexes (not by law but most apartment complexes put out a flag to celebrate in accordance with the “national” part of the holiday), but it’s not a tradition for individual people to fly the national flag on their own home/property. Other flags, yes – so people will display say, the rainbow flag, the EU flag, etc as a protest, etc. But the national flag, no.

    Those who *do* fly the national flag… well, they usually have it around all the time, not just on holidays, and they’re the sort of people with, er, a “nationalist” leaning, so to speak, who feel it very important that other people are aware that this is Hungary and they are Hungarians.

14. Only really for major sporting events like the world cup or the olympics, some of the bigger royal events as well but you wont see as many and years go by without those happening – In my village there is about 300 homes, four have flag poles, right now one is Ukrainian, one is the county flag, one is Irish and one is a flag the family who live there made up.

15. Since Independence sentiments became more loud in Catalonia with flying their flag right-wingers decided to flag Spain’a flag as a counterpart. Then Covid hit and they went full overboard with them. Outside of the national team playing and right-wingers to usually

16. Normally you do not see flags flying from normal house and you would be somewhat suspicious of the occupant if you did. The exception is when there is a major football match involving the home team when you will see it on some houses.

17. “Our flag” means different things, for different people, with different political connotations. You will see plenty of Spanish flags when the national team (specifically football) is playing internationally.

    Every other day is people expressing their nationalistic tendencies, whether state nationalism or regional nationalism.

18. You can see German flags in Germany on public buildings and rarely on private homes. But days when people hoist German flags en masse like on King’s Day in the Netherlands don’t really happen in Germany.

    You only see large numbers of German flags during the World Cup or the European Championship.

    I wouldn’t even have a German flag at home for doing this…