Palau Flag

How to identify it

A sky-blue field with one large golden-yellow disc set slightly toward the flagpole side. The disc measures three fifths of the flag height, making it larger than the discs on many similar designs.

Design and construction

Proportions

5:8

Adoption and legal status

1 January 1981, on separation from the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

Construction

The government description sets the moon diameter at 0.6 of the flag width and places its centre 0.7 of the width from the left edge, vertically centred.

Officially documented meaning

The Palauan government describes the disc as a golden-yellow full moon on a field of sky blue.

Commonly repeated interpretation

Not official: The full moon is widely explained as the time Palauans traditionally chose for fishing, planting, harvesting and canoe carving, and the blue as the passing of foreign administration. These readings come from government and vexillological commentary rather than from a statute.

History of the design

A national competition in 1979 drew over a thousand entries. The design by Blau Skebong was approved on 22 October 1980 and hoisted on 1 January 1981; it was not altered when full independence came in 1994.

Similar flags

Compare the details that separate these designs.

• 
  Japan

  Japan is a red disc centred on white; Palau is a yellow disc off-centre on blue.

• 
  Bangladesh

  Bangladesh uses the same off-centre idea with a red disc on bottle green.

Comparison guides

• Japan vs Bangladesh vs Palau: telling the three disc flags apart

Sources