Kathmandu, 17 December,
A group of people rallied from Basantapur to Shanti Batika in Kathmandu on Sunday to commemorate the official adoption of Nepal’s current national flag on 16 December 1962.
It is normal for citizens of every country to be proud of their national flag, national anthem, and other symbols but Nepal’s national flag has some unique features to add to the pride of a common Nepali.
The only non-quadrilateral flag
National flags of all the countries in the world have four sides, but Nepal’s flag has five sides. Two juxtaposed triangular figures with deep blue borders host the white Sun and Moon on a crimson background.
Although the current flag was adopted only in 1962, Nepal’s national flags before that also had non-quadrilateral shapes. The triangular flavor in Nepal’s national flags is attributed to the prominence of ‘triangular’ dhwajas (flags) in Hinduism.
The mathematics behind
Nepal’s national flag has been named the most ‘mathematical’ flag in the world due to the geometrical complexities involved in constructing the five-sided figure.
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, adopted in 1990, included the precise geometrical description of Nepal’s national flag in Article 5, Schedule 1. Schedule 1 of the 2015 Constitution of Nepal gave a continuity specifying the geometric method of making the national flag. The constitution details the methods of making the shape inside the border, the moon, the sun, and the border.
The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIC) observes that when constructed according to the stated geometric construction law, the ratio of the flag’s height to the longest width is an irrational number.