
Why there are 12 stars on the EU flag although it was never 12 countries - ubac
https://www.samefacts.com/post-788-the-european-flag/#more-65971
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guessmyname
The WikiPedia page [1] has much more information and probably a better answer.

Also a timeline with different flags through out the years [2].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Europe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Europe)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Europe#Timeline_of_Fla...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Europe#Timeline_of_Flag_proposals)

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andrepd
What kind of time-cube tier crap is this? It's hardly fit for hackernews, is
it, this rant about weird flag conspiracies and Eurocrats and Cromaggnons...

Read more about its history, how it was adopted, unsuccessful proposals, etc:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Europe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Europe)

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teh_klev
The clue is in the first sentence of the article:

"For my swan-song I’ll supply the faithful with a _tall tale_ of the sort that
induced Mark to invite me on to his blog. I’m sure he would have enjoyed the
mixture of verifiable truths, multiple ironies, and fuel for nested conspiracy
theories."

It's just a bit of fun.

~~~
happytoexplain
This is honestly not clear enough. While the literal meaning of these
sentences is perfectly clear, they are convoluted and sound exactly like the
kind of nonsensical contradictory thing a conspiracy theorist would interject
into his own rambling.

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muxamilian
The article repeatedly talks about “Eurocrats”. This is a combat term used by
Eurosceptics but certainly not a term anyone would use who wants to write a
neutral article.

Whenever someone writes “Eurocrats” it’s a good idea to stop reading if you
want unbiased information.

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colechristensen
The reason is, apparently, nothing. There are some weird conspiracies that
people take too far about this and that but nobody ever declared any reason
for 12. It's like reading a high school literature interpretation of Moby Dick
out there.

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Thaxll
[https://europa.eu/european-union/about-
eu/symbols/flag_en](https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/symbols/flag_en)

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btilly
I have no idea why he thinks that the 12 showed up because that is how many
periods a woman has rather than how many full moons there are on average. Not
that these are unconnected.

As [https://qz.com/1706398/the-average-menstrual-cycle-is-
not-28...](https://qz.com/1706398/the-average-menstrual-cycle-is-not-28-days/)
points out, the average woman's menstrual cycle is 29.3 days. The length of a
lunar cycle is 29.5 days.

That they are so close is unlikely to be coincidence. In fact a close-knit
group of women in primitive conditions will synchronize their cycles to each
other and then the group synchronizes to the Moon. An evolutionary explanation
can be found in the fact that predators can smell the blood from menstruation.
Therefore there is a real advantage to having women do this all together, when
the moon's light makes defending them easier.

It would be more convenient still if women didn't menstruate. However periods
seem to have evolved when primates lived in trees. There was no barrier to
this since smell is less important for arboreal animals than ground dwelling
ones. And once evolved, it is hard for it to unevolve.

A side note of evolutionary speculation. Our arboreal ancestry seems to have
been when primates lost most of their sense of smell. However in temperate
zones, smell is very important for finding food under snow. Is it a
coincidence that there are only two species of primates that live in the
temperate zone? (Japanese snow macaques are on an island with less
competition, and _homo sapiens_ is clearly a special case in a lot of ways.)

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simonblack
"Pleasant to the Eye"

Probably much the same reason the US flag is red, white, blue rather than
black, green, orange.

There is a lot of artistic expertise in flags, just as there is in company
logos. What makes the Honda 'H' different from the Hyundai 'H'?

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appleflaxen
From WP:

Against the blue sky of the Western world, the stars symbolise the peoples of
Europe in a form of a circle, a sign of union. Their number is invariably
twelve, the figure twelve being the symbol of perfection and entirety.

— Council of Europe. Paris, 7–9 December 1955.

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amelius
[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/may/07/banksy-...](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/may/07/banksy-
brexit-mural-dover-eu-flag)

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close04
> Where’s the conspiracy?

Sigh... I feel like I read an article about chemtrails. Author concluded it's
a Eurocratic-Catholic-Coptic-Jewish-Canaanite-CroMagnon conspiracy. The
dismissive or passive aggressive remarks he drops every 2 sentences don't do
the article any favors either.

12 is a number that kept appearing throughout history, probably starting with
the 12 months in a year we've had since the ancient Sumerian calendar and the
wider adoption of the duodecimal system. It had meaning to the ancient Greeks,
Hindus, Christians, Norsemen, Chinese, Muslims, Jews, etc.

It's fitting that the symbolism is still appealing in modern times, in
addition to the EEC actually having 12 members when the flag was adopted.

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timbit42
Their ultimate goal is to convert the world to dozenal.

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ars
If you follow his chain all the way to end it's supposedly because there are
12 months in a year.

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toohotatopic
Actually there are 13.

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mytailorisrich
It's not true that it was never 12 countries.

On the contrary, while the flag existed before, it really became the EC flag
in 1986 when the number of member countries was... 12.

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gok
It was adopted by the EEC in 1985 when there were 10 members.

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coldtea
In 1985 there might have been 10 members, but Spain and Portugal were already
in talks for years and locked to be included (as was scheduled for the next
year).

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mytailorisrich
Indeed, they joined on 1st January 1986.

In 1985 the talks had ended and them joining was a done deal. This coincided
with the adoption of the flag.

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coldtea
Yeah. And for many years from then onwards, E.U. was often referred to in
local media as (translared to english) "The Europe of the twelve" \-- until
the much later expansion.

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mytailorisrich
I remember this, too. That's what made me jump at the claim that there was
never a time with 12 members!

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mattmaroon
Optimism!

