Today, the Flag of the nation of Nepal and the State of California fly in commemoration of a friend’s birthday! My friend chose these flags for their visual design!
The flag of Nepal is one of the few non rectangular national flags in the world, and it had been a favorite of mine for years. The current flag was adopted on 16 December 1962, along with the formation of a new constitutional government. The design of the flag is laid out in the Constitution of Nepal, Article 5, Schedule 1 (page 235 of the PDF). It’s too long to reprint here, but for the vexillologists out there, it’s definitely worth a read.
The Flag of California has a history which dates back to before California was a state. It’s formally laid out in California Government Code Section 420. The first paragraph of the section reads,
“The Bear Flag is the State Flag of California. As viewed with the hoist end of the flag to the left of the observer there appears in the upper left-hand corner of a white field a five-pointed red star with one point vertically upward and in the middle of the white field a brown grizzly bear walking toward the left with all four paws on a green grass plot, with head and eye turned slightly toward the observer; a red stripe forms the length of the flag at the bottom, and between the grass plot and the red stripe appear the words CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC.”
The California State Parks has a great history of the flag on its web site.
Cruesbreck Flags 