Also, what are other etiquette rules when your national anthem is being played/sung? Do you sing it along or just listen? How common is it to put your right hand over heart? Is the behaviour codified in law or is it just unwritten rules?
In Slovenia we don’t clap after the anthem (except for sport events), we stand up and look towards the flag, we usually sing along (but not always, it depends on occasion) most people don’t put their hand over their heart though.
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We dont clap after and I havent seen people put their hand over their hearts either. Some people sing along but most just listen to it. Standing up is more common but there is no unwrittwn rule that people face towards the flag then.
There is no actual law on what to do because well.. history. Everyone is free to sing along, do gestures like standing up, hand over heart, or nothing at all.
The etiquette is pretty much:
Stand up and take the hat off. If a special performer is singing it, no singing along but in that case you often clap.
There is no staring at the flag unless the flag is somehow relevant to the occasion. Hands on hearts is not customary and if you ask me, it seems a bit pretentious and forced.
People clap after the national anthem if it’s played during a sporting event (particularly after a medal ceremony), but that’s more as a celebration of the athlete’s achievement than as an etiquette thing. People don’t clap if it’s played during a formal event or in church or something like that.
> Do you sing it along or just listen?
People that know the lyrics tend to sing along (atleast with the 1st verse that’s usually played or with the 6th verse in churches). Although I do always find it funny to see that a lot of people have forgotten some of the lyrics and kinda mumble along.
> How common is it to put your right hand over heart?
Never seen anyone do that and I would think it’s somewhat odd. With the exception of some athletes I also don’t think most people look at the flag while singing it.
There is no clapping. People do stand up to sing it, but not with a hand on their hearts (although I have occasionally seen sports teams do that before international games). There is usually a respectful silence of a couple of breaths afterwards. There is no law/regulation involved.
As for singing it, the Icelandic national anthem is notoriously difficult to sing well unless you have training. Most people only know the first stanza, so what happens is that people sing the first stanza, or in some cases only the first four or so lines of that stanza, and then the volume of singing drops dramatically.
>Do you clap after the national anthem?
Maybe at an international sporting event (for the Scottish one at least, I’m not sure what people would do for the British one).
>Also, what are other etiquette rules when your national anthem is being played/sung?
In theory stand up, take your hat off it you’re wearing one but people more or less just do their own thing.
>Do you sing it along or just listen
Folk generally do sing along but it’s up to them
>How common is it to put your right hand over heart?
Totally unheard of, we’d probably think this is a bit American
>Is the behaviour codified in law or is it just unwritten rules?
Unwritten rules, we’re pretty easy going with these sorts of things
I only had to sing it once, when we were sworn in in the army.
Everyone in uniform had to stand in attention and sing along.
That was it.
I don’t think there is any codification or unwritten rules.
We don’t have any particular etiquette to it.
All I would say about the Irish one though is a significant % of the crowd don’t know the words and tend to sing a line or two at volume and then go all mumbling for the lyrics. At matches the effort goes into songs like the Fields of Athenry rather than the anthem.
We don’t really have strict rules regarding our anthem though it is customary to stand and remove headdress.
We might clap if it’s a performance of kids singing but we usually don’t clap. Hand over heart is also not really done either.
Here in Croatia it is very common to put your right hand on your heart during the anthem.
It is etiquette for us not to clap after the anthem, but some people during sports games clap anyway, usually to show respect for the nation.
It is customary to stand and sing along. The hand over the heart varies from person to person, but it is uncommon in my experience; at sports events some people put their arms around the shoulders of the people besides them, forming a chain. We only clap at sports events, and that is moreso to cheer for the team before kick-off than for the anthem itself. We don’t have formal rules about it
Here in the Netherlands we don’t take the national anthem that seriously. It’s more like something you sing for fun around sports events and when it has to be sung solemny, it feels a bit uncomfortable, cringy even.
Just standing up, sing along if you can. No staring, no hand on the heart. Not sure about clapping, maybe the same as Finland (we have basically the same anthem lol) – if there’s a performer, then people clap. I’ve usually been the performer with my choir.
Edit: the third verse begins in piano because it says “Let the God guard you…”
Stand up with arms hanging loosely down your body, reminiscent of the attention pose. No hand over your heart or anything. You should sing along. No clapping outside sporting events.
I belive these are unwritten rules. It’s also considered polite to stand up when you’re in a foreign country or among foreigners and they stand up to sing/listen to their anthem.