How to Send the World a Message With a Flag

Why is it that at the drop of a hat, many people run pennants up flagpoles to celebrate their successes, or the homecoming of someone much loved? Well, it could be said that this is a perfect visual way to show people either that the person or people coming home are valued. Or, it shows a sense of belonging to one cause or another. Flag stores are usually inundated with requests for family oriented flags or such and most offer a custom flag service.

Everyone will know of the identifying pennants that will be flown from sea going vessels etc. But what they may not know is that the naval service has meanings for each and every pennant it flies. When a ship is coming into port, decoration is not the only reason to fly these delightful strings of pretty colored pennants. They may spell out the name of the home port, or even a message to the country that they are visiting saying something like 'our company is honored to be in your country'.

At other times these pennants, or bunting as it is commonly called, may just be celebrating an anniversary of the monarch of that particular country. In England, the Royal Nave will always celebrate the birthday of Nelson who is considered to be one of the most beloved and respected seafarers of all times.

Cargo ships will use these pennants to show where they are registered. Very often it is not the country where the ship comes from. This is a 'convenience' pennant and is done in this way to take advantage of tax laws in that particular country. So any ships that look like they come from Panama, a favorite 'convenience' country, is normally from somewhere quite different.

Before the days of electronic communications, small pennants were used to signal from ship to ship. Each position adopted by the sailor given the task of sending the message meant a different word or letter and other ships in the area could clearly see what the message was meant to convey.

Today many companies will have a pennant designed to denote what the company does. It may be the company logo, or perhaps show something on the pennant that is relevant to the business concerned. These are usually made bigger than normal to be flown from either the top of the building or from the car park to attract attention of people driving by. Just notice how much bunting car sales lots have all around the place to attract the attention of shoppers.

Finally, for family members it is sometimes good to have a kind of crest designed to denote what the family is comprised of. For example, in many European countries in days gone by, each family would have a family crest to show who the family was. This was used to identify that particular family in times of feuds etc. Anyone not showing the family crest was promptly thrown in a dungeon or hung, drawn and quartered, whichever came first!

Connor Sullivan bought some Custom Flags for the local high school booster club. The booster president ordered custom flags from an internet flag store for the local high school fall sports.