Singapore Flags – Singaporean Flag, Bunting & Hand Flags

The Singapore flag: red over white, crescent and five stars

Singapore’s flag is two equal horizontal bands, red above white, with a white crescent moon and five white five-pointed stars in a circle in the upper hoist. It was adopted on 3 December 1959, when Singapore became self-governing within the British Empire, and was kept unchanged when the island joined Malaysia in 1963 and when it became an independent republic on 9 August 1965. The committee led by Toh Chin Chye chose red for universal brotherhood and the equality of man, white for pervading and everlasting purity and virtue, the crescent for a young nation on the ascendant, and the five stars for democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality. The crescent and stars together were also a way to satisfy the Chinese preference for stars and the Malay preference for a crescent, and the colours matched the neighbouring Indonesian and Polish flags only by coincidence. The proportions are 2:3. Our Singapore flag sets the crescent and stars at the official size and position in the canton and uses the specified bright red rather than a dark crimson.

National Day, 9 August

National Day on 9 August is the occasion for the flag, with the parade at the Padang or Marina Bay, flypasts and the flag carried beneath a Chinook, and Singaporeans at home display it from July through to the end of September, the only period in which private homes are normally encouraged to fly it. In Britain the Singapore High Commission and the student societies, among the largest overseas student groups at British universities, hold National Day dinners, and Singapore Day events in London have drawn thousands of expatriates. Sport is a more modest source of demand: the Lions’ ASEAN Championship wins, Joseph Schooling’s Olympic 100m butterfly gold in 2016, Loh Kean Yew’s world badminton title in 2021, the table-tennis team’s Olympic medals and the Singapore Grand Prix, the first night race in Formula 1, all put the flag on screen. The Lion City’s links with Britain, through the Commonwealth, the Five Power Defence Arrangements and the many Singaporean-trained doctors and lawyers in the UK, keep it on reception desks across London.

Which size and which grade

The Singapore flag is stocked in 20x12in, 3ft x 2ft, 5ft x 3ft and 8ft x 5ft. Flagtex is the printed woven polyester, light and economical, suited to a dinner, a classroom or a few weeks outside; DuraFlag is the knitted heavyweight with a double-stitched edge for a pole that is flown all year. 5ft x 3ft is the garden pole and office size, 3ft x 2ft the window or wall bracket, 8ft x 5ft the stage or hall backdrop, 20x12in the car or hand pole. Both have a sewn header with brass eyelets; the DuraFlag can be had with clips or rope and toggle.

Singapore bunting

Singapore bunting comes in 3m and 9m lengths with the flag printed on rectangular polyester pennants sewn to a tape. 3m dresses a buffet table or a doorway for National Day; 9m goes round a function room, a student union bar or a classroom. It copes with rain over a garden, and lengths tie end to end. Plain red and white lengths from the bunting range match it exactly.

Hand flags and table flags

Singapore hand flags on wooden sticks come in 9x6in and 18x12in for a National Day gathering or a graduation. For the desk there is the Singapore table flag, a 6x4in flag with a base, the 9x6in wooden table flag, the 18x12in large wooden table flag for a reception and the sleeved satin table flag for a boardroom. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines are under world flags.

Singapore flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Singapore Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, 2 grades)from £6.99
• Singapore Bunting (3m or 9m)from £9.98
• Singapore Hand Flagsfrom £5.99
• Singapore Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Singapore Large Wooden Table Flagfrom £3.98