A five-pointed star (☆) is a very common ideogram throughout the world. If drawn with lines of equal length and angles of 36° at each point, it is sometimes termed a golden five pointed star.^[1] If the colinear edges are joined together a pentagram is produced, which is the simplest of the unicursal star polygons, and a symbol of mystical and magical significance.

The golden five-pointed star has particularly strong associations with military power and war.

Contents 1 Flags 2 Socialism & Communism 3 The Druze 4 Ottomans 5 Bahá'í Faith 6 Other uses 7 Brigate Rosse 8 Order of the Eastern Star 9 Kappa Sigma 10 Esperanto 11 See also 12 References

[edit] Flags

Flag of Pakistan	Flag of Chile	The flag of Ghana	The flag of New Zealand
The flag of Morocco	The flag of Ethiopia	The flag of China	Flag of the European Union
The flag of the Philippines	The flag of Singapore	The flag of Turkey	The flag of the United States
The flag of Somalia	The flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina	The flag of North Korea	The flag of Vietnam
The flag of Panama	The flag of Grenada	The flag of the Solomon Islands	The flag of Algeria
The flag of Cape Verde	The flag of Brazil	The Esperanto flag

Five-pointed stars are found on many flags, generally in solid form, although some, such as the flag of New Zealand, have a different-coloured outline. The pentagram appears on only two national flags, those of Ethiopia and Morocco. See gallery of flags by design#Star.

Five-pointed stars appear on the flag and in the heraldic symbolism of the United States. In the U.S. context, the stars allegedly symbolize the heavens. They stand in contrast to the vexillologically rarer seven-pointed stars, such as those used in the flag of Australia.

[edit] Socialism & Communism

The Red Star is a five-pointed star, or pentagram, coloured solidly in red. It closely associated by many with communism, though this is a function of its use by socialists in general. It features ubiquitously, by choice and by legacy, in Soviet and post-Soviet states. For example; the flag of the USSR and the flag of North Korea.

[edit] The Druze

The Druze, descendents of exiles from Fatimid Dynasty-ruled Egypt, have as their symbol a five-pointed star with points colored green, red, yellow, blue and white. They live mainly in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Though they share some religious beliefs with Muslims and Christians, both groups consider them as pagans.

[edit] Ottomans

The five-pointed star is part of the symbol of the Ottoman Empire.

[edit] Bahá'í Faith

"Strictly speaking the 5-pointed star is the symbol of our Faith, as used by the Báb and explained by Him."

(on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 52)

In the Bahá'í Faith a five-pointed star referred to as a haykal (Arabic: "temple") represents the (body of the) Manifestation of God, as described in the Súriy-i-Haykal.

[edit] Other uses

Union Army, VII Corps, 3rd Division Badge

Union Army, XII Corps, 3rd Division Badge

A typical presentation of the star and crescent

[edit] Brigate Rosse

The symbol of the Italian Marxist-Leninist terrorist group Brigate Rosse is a five-pointed star.

[edit] Order of the Eastern Star

The Order of the Eastern Star, a fraternal organization associated with Freemasonry, employs a downward-pointing star as its symbol, with the five points colored blue, yellow, white, green, and red. This emblem sometimes appears in the form of a pentagram.

[edit] Kappa Sigma

The Star and Crescent are the official symbols of Kappa Sigma comprising the fraternity badge.

[edit] Esperanto

A green five-pointed star is a symbol of Esperanto.

[edit] See also

• Star (symbol)
• Star (glyph)
• Sea star
• Pentagram
• Mullet (heraldry)
• Red star
• List of symbols
• Arabic star
• The Five Star Stories

[edit] References

1. ^ The fivepointed star from Liungman, Carl G. (2004). Symbols: Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms. HME Publishing. ISBN 91-972705-0-4. . Retrieved 19 July 2006.