If it is dirty, burned, torn or trampled on, this may suggest anger against those who have attacked the country or anger against the country itself. A sea of waving flags in a crowd may suggest benign patriotism or a sense of foreboding about excessively strong nationalism.
If the flag is unknown, it may be a tribal emblem of your entire network of family and friends. Do you feel supported by them or neglected? Your positive or negative attitudes towards the flag in your dream may reveal your unconscious feelings on this issue. As always, the colors of your particular flag—whether or not the flag is known to you or associated with a country you have been to—will be significant.
As far as the universal symbolism for flags is concerned, you can ascribe meaning to certain symbols, but bear in mind that your personal associations should be considered first. For example, the cross in the flags of Greece, the Scandinavian countries and Britain is a symbol of Christianity, but it may be telling you something else.
Similarly, the Arabic writing on the flag of Saudi Arabia saying ‘There is no god but God, Mohammed is His Messenger’ and ‘God is Great’ on the flag of Iraq are also Islamic messages. The Star of David on the flag of Israel is an ancient Jewish symbol.
Religious symbolism can also be expressed via color. Green is often used in the flags of Arab and Islamic countries, such as Libya, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia; the flags of Kuwait, Jordan and Palestine all contain a green stripe. The flags of Turkey, Tunisia and Pakistan include the crescent moon, another traditional Islamic symbol.
Communistderived flags may include a hammer and sickle, as in the flag of the former USSR and the current flag of Angola, or a red background, such as the flags of China and Vietnam. The eagle has been used as a national or imperial symbol since the times of the Roman Empire, which was a huge and enduring Christian territory for over a millennium. Consequently, many Christian, imperial and other aspiring successors and hopefuls have adopted similar emblems, including Germany, Egypt, Russia and the Orthodox Christian Church.
Other symbols in flags can be self-explanatory, such as the ‘R’ in the middle of the old Rwanda flag, or they can be explained by the history, geography or flora and fauna of a country, such as the cedar tree in the flag of Lebanon. [1]