Gee, Theme Day already? I post this not for a particular patriotic reason today; rather I was saving this for a post on Dominion Day, which in New Zealand goes largely unnoticed, after I've done some research, but it's so blue!The New Zealand flag has four red with white rims starts to signify the Southern Cross; the Australian flag has six white starts. On the sports field, the New Zealand flag is black with a silver fern. There have been some discussions on changing the flag, in particular that of taking out the Union Jack, along with some talk of becoming a republic, but I suspect neither will happen in the next decade or so.
Today is theme day. Please click on the following links to see other "Blue" posts around the world.
Boston (MA), USA - Cleveland (OH), USA - Philadelphia (PA), USA - Arlington (VA), USA - Cape Town, South Africa - Portland (OR), USA - Sequim (WA), USA - Selma (AL), USA - Arradon, France - Petaling Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Stockholm, Sweden - Singapore, Singapore - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Phoenix (AZ), USA - Seattle (WA), USA - Toulouse, France - The Hague, Netherlands - Moscow, Russia - Fort Lauderdale (FL), USA - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Stayton (OR), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Detroit (MI), USA - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Nelson, New Zealand - Bandung (West Java), Indonesia - Greenville (SC), USA - Hyde, UK - Radonvilliers, France - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Manila, Philippines - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Saarbrücken, Germany - New Orleans (LA), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Forks (WA), USA - Wichita (Ks), USA - Barton (VT), USA - St. Louis (MO), USA - Joplin (MO), USA - Chandler (AZ), USA - Quincy (MA), USA - Setúbal, Portugal - Inverness (IL), USA - Christchurch, New Zealand - Toruń, Poland - North Bay (ON), Canada - Le Guilvinec, France - Chateaubriant, France - London, England - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Naples (FL), USA - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - Sydney, Australia - Austin (TX), USA - Mumbai, India - Boston (MA), USA - Santa Fe (NM), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Paderborn, Germany - Montréal (QC), Canada - Jackson (MS), USA - Stavanger, Norway - Orlando (FL), USA - Grenoble, France - Cheltenham, UK - Forks (WA), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Weston (FL), USA - London, UK - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Ocean Township (NJ), USA - Belgrade, Serbia - Paris, France - Shanghai, China - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Montpellier, France - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Auckland, New Zealand - Evry, France - New York City (NY), USA - Nottingham, UK - Las Vegas (NV), USA - Oslo, Norway - Minneapolis (MN), USA - American Fork (UT), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Trujillo, Peru - Trujillo, Peru - Melbourne (VIC), Australia - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Durban, South Africa - Brussels, Belgium - Anderson (SC), USA - Budapest, Hungary - Wellington, New Zealand - Prague, Czech Republic - Saigon, Vietnam - Ystad, Sweden - Miami (FL), USA - Seoul, South Korea - Hong Kong, China - Melbourne, Australia - Baziège, France
Thanks for the background information. Good choice!
ReplyDeleteYay, the first visitor of the Theme Day, Kate!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I am the second one?:)
ReplyDeleteWill you show some day the black with silver fern version, too?
Of course, you are, Zsolt. And yes, but I should have done it before the All Blacks lost - they were just all over the place, but until the international next sporting event, I'm not sure where to look. But I'm bound to find some - yesterday, I saw a car with a tiny one sticking out of the window - must have been die-hard All Black fans.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo. I find when I take photos of a flag I have to take a bunch. The wind does not always cooperate.
ReplyDeleteDenton, in this case, about 12.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo and very interesting information about the flag.
ReplyDeletevery nice photo for the theme day, thanks for sharing that info, and yay good thing the wind cooperated with you =) happy theme day
ReplyDelete=^..^=
I Heart Manila
Bonne photo et merci pour les explications
ReplyDeleteGood photo and thank you for explanations
I love to see flags flying.... they look so beautiful. This one is no exception.... and you have a beautiful BLUE sky to go with it!
ReplyDeleteGreat job!
Can anything be bluer? Nice shot.
ReplyDeletejoy
Norwich Daily Photo
Great blue shot, beautiful day by the looks of things.
ReplyDeleteNice choice for the Blue Theme. Thanks for all the information too. Blue Flag against the Blue sky. Perfect.
ReplyDeleteThanks, everybody. Boy, the theme day roster has grown! I need to make a cuppa and sit down to for a world tour, that's for sure!
ReplyDeleteblue, blue, blue....
ReplyDelete:)
That's a lot of blue! Nice one. :) I like the different shades of blue in this one picture. :)
ReplyDeleteGood information...nice choice!
ReplyDeleteMeg & Ben, I love that you put up the NZ flag for theme day! That is so interesting about the use of a black one with the fern for sports events and the talk of adopting a new design. I just listened to a program about the debate about the Canadian flag's adoption. That maple leaf was very controversial at the time, and now I can't imagine the old flag with its version of the union jack in it, too. I think, given Canada's lead, NZ just might end up with that fern curl as its symbol. But, for now, you have a wonderful theme day capture!
ReplyDelete-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo
Great capture and info. Good thing you stuck with it to get such a good shot!
ReplyDeletenice flag you have there.
ReplyDeletei always get a little confuse between the Aus and NZ flag.
Happy Theme Day!
Thanks for your visits, everybody.
ReplyDeleteI think the black flag on the silver fern was possibly brought in to distinguish us from the Aussies on the sports field. It's one of the contenders for our national flag, but some think it's look too much like a sporting goods logo. There is actually one more flag, that of the indigenous Maori people, and the flag that symbolizes their wish for sovereignty/tino rangatiratanga. That gets us into a political arena, and I'm not qualified to comment on it, but it's probably worth attempting to collect links and posting one day.
Anyhoo, thanks again for your visits.
Kiwis seems to have identified their nationality with the fern "officially" by WWII. I found these photos: http://www.nzflag.com/gallery.cfm
ReplyDeleteAlthough the rugby team which established the name the All Blacks, also called The Originals, toured in 1905, they had a big silver fern on their jersey.
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_fern
Oh, golly, I'm digging myself deeper and deeper into something I have very little knowledge of.
A reasonably windy day, apparently. Would you consider yourself patriotic, Meg? I'm not. That doesn't mean I dislike my country but I find the concept of borders less and less important in this world and that is basically a good thing.
ReplyDeleteGee, a hard question, Per. Probably not - at least not so much about Japan. While living in the US, not so because I was constantly having to fill in Alien Registration forms, and renewing my student visa. Also, in the US, for me, it wasn't so much about being in the US, but what mattered was which state you lived in.
ReplyDeleteNew Zealand is a difficult one. We have permanent residency, and Ben will probably live in this country until the day he stops living, but part of me is always looking for a place I belong, and I haven't found it. If you look Asian and talk like an American, I'll never be seen as a real Kiwi anyway, so I have mixed feelings about it.
I do think and react to things more and more like a Kiwi, though, and when watching sports, I'm definitely all for anyone who wares black.
We are still Japanese citizens, because Japan doesn't allow dual citizenship, and it's hard to get anything beyond a visitor's visa over there, so we hang on to our passports. And as my parents get older, I sometimes think there might come a day when I'd have to go home, albeit temporarily, to take care of them.
Boy, you touched a nerve, Per. I think my ties with New Zealand would be much stronger if it became a Republic; the thought of colony/dominion is a turn off for me because I grew up in Japan (formerly an occupied country) and the US (for whom the colonial status was like the biggest albatross ever!)
My world is somewhat simpler. I was born in Sweden, I've lived here all my life (although I was absolutely convinced in my youth that I'd do a lot better elsewhere), I've got my parents here and I've come to accept some of the political oddities we have such as our extreme taxation. Still, I haven't traveled nearly as much as I think I'd want to and the fact that I haven't been outside Europe is sort of original these days. So who knows what waits down the line? Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Meg.
ReplyDeleteTherein lies my many idiosyncrasies, dear Per. On one hand, I envy people who have travel led widely; on the other, I really envy people who have managed to stay put in one place to soak up everything about that place.
ReplyDeleteBut life goes on, and I still would love to be able to visit continental Europe.