Malta Emoji & Symbols

The Malta flag emoji 🇲🇹 shows the national flag: two vertical halves, white at the hoist and red at the fly, with the George Cross, edged in red, in the upper corner of the white half. Legend traces the white and red to Count Roger of Sicily, who attacked Malta in 1091 and imposed tribute on its Muslim rulers; lasting Norman rule followed under his son in 1127. The flag in its present form was adopted on 21 September 1964, the day Malta became independent from Britain.

The cross is a real medal. On 15 April 1942, in the middle of the Axis siege, King George VI awarded the George Cross, Britain's highest civilian award for bravery, to the whole island "to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history". From 1943 it was shown on a blue square on the flag; at independence the blue gave way to a thin red edge. There is no George Cross emoji, so people who mean it send 🎖️, the military medal.

Like every country flag, 🇲🇹 is not one character but two regional indicator letters, 🇲 and 🇹, the country code MT. Phones and Macs draw the pair as the flag; Windows has no flag pictures in its emoji font and shows the letters MT instead. There is no Malta heart, so people spell the flag in colours: 🤍❤️.

The Maltese cross ✠ and other Malta symbols

The Maltese cross ✠ is the eight-pointed cross of the Knights of St John, the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, who ruled Malta from 1530 until Napoleon took the islands in 1798. Its eight points are traditionally read as the eight Beatitudes. The Knights held off the Ottoman Great Siege of 1565 ⚔️🛡️ and then built Valletta, named after Grand Master Jean de Valette, as a fortress city 🏰. The cross is still everywhere: on the €1 and €2 coins, on souvenirs, and on the badges of fire brigades and ambulance services around the world.

✠ is a plain Unicode character, U+2720 MALTESE CROSS, so it pastes as text anywhere, in a bio, a username or a document; the HTML entity is ✠. It has no emoji version, and fonts draw it in different ways: some show the true eight-pointed cross with V-shaped ends, others a broad-armed cross pattée. ✝️ is the plain Latin cross of the churches.

Malta's other national symbols are the coat of arms, a shield with the flag's colours and the George Cross under a mural crown, and several living ones: the blue rock thrush 🐦, called il-merill, the national bird; the Maltese rock centaury, the national plant; and the Pharaoh hound 🐕, il-kelb tal-fenek, the rabbit dog and the national dog. 🐝🍯 nod to Malta's own honeybee and to its ancient name, Melite, often explained from the Greek word for honey.

Malta currency symbol: the euro € (and the old lira)

The Malta currency symbol is the euro sign €, with 💶 for the notes. Malta joined the European Union 🇪🇺 on 1 May 2004 and switched from the Maltese lira to the euro on 1 January 2008, the same day as Cyprus. The Maltese euro coins 🪙 carry three national pictures: an altar from the Mnajdra temple on the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins, the emblem of Malta on the 10, 20 and 50 cent coins, and the Maltese cross ✠ on the €1 and €2.

Before the euro, prices were written in Maltese lira, Lm, short for lira maltija. Earlier, under British rule, Malta counted in pounds £, like Britain. To type € on Windows press Alt Gr + E or Alt + 0128 on the numeric keypad; on a Mac with a U.S. keyboard, Option + Shift + 2.

Maltese letters: Ċ Ġ Ħ Ż and how to type them

Maltese is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet and the only one that is an official language of the European Union. Its words come from Arabic, Sicilian and Italian and, more recently, English, and its 30-letter alphabet, finalised in 1921, spells them all. By CLDR estimates about 470,000 people speak Maltese, around 410,000 English, the second official language, and about 260,000 Italian.

Four Maltese letters are not in English. Ċ ċ is "ch" as in church (ċaw, bye). Ġ ġ is "j" as in jam (Ġesù, Jesus); plain g is always hard, as in go. Ħ ħ is a strong, breathy h (ħobż, bread), while plain h is usually silent. Ż ż is "z" as in zoo (żebbuġ, olives), while plain z is "ts" as in bits (zalza, sauce). Two more letters are written as pairs: għ, usually silent but lengthening the vowel next to it, as in Għawdex, Gozo, said roughly "aw-desh"; and ie, close to the "ea" of ear (bieb, door). Watch also x, which is "sh" (Marsaxlokk, Marsa-shlokk), j, which is "y", and q, a catch in the throat. A grave accent marks a stressed final vowel: kafè, università, Ġesù. Quotations go in “ ”, and the apostrophe ’ is everywhere, standing for dropped sounds: ta’ Malta (of Malta), x’inhu (what is it).

To type them on Windows, add the Maltese 47-key or Maltese 48-key keyboard in language settings. Without it, use the numeric keypad for these Alt codes: Alt + 0224 à, 0232 è, 0236 ì, 0242 ò, 0249 ù. For the others type the code in Word and press Alt + X: 010B ċ, 0121 ġ, 0127 ħ, 017C ż (capitals 010A, 0120, 0126, 017B). In HTML they are ċ, ġ, ħ and ż. On a phone, add a Maltese keyboard (Gboard has one), or copy them from the grid above. The full alphabet is in the Maltese collection, and the English and Italian collections cover the other languages heard on the islands.

Pastizzi, ftira and rabbit: Maltese food in emoji

There is no pastizz emoji, so people use 🥐 for the flaky, diamond-shaped pastry, or 🥟. Pastizzi come filled with ricotta or with mushy peas, cost very little and are eaten at any hour, often with a cup of tea or coffee ☕. 🫓 is the ftira, the ring-shaped sourdough flatbread on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage since 2020, and 🍞🍅🫒🐟 is ħobż biż-żejt, crusty Maltese bread rubbed with tomato paste and olive oil and topped with tuna and capers.

🐇 is the national dish, stuffat tal-fenek, rabbit stewed in wine and tomato 🍲, and the centre of a fenkata, a rabbit feast with friends. 🥧🐟 is torta tal-lampuki, the fish pie of the autumn lampuki season, and 🥧🍝 is timpana, baked macaroni in pastry. 🐙 is octopus stew, 🦑 fried calamari, 🫘 bigilla, a broad bean dip, and 🧀 the small round ġbejniet, sheep's cheeses from Gozo.

Sweet things: 🍯 for the treacle rings, qagħaq tal-għasel, 🥚 for the almond-filled Easter figolli, 🌵 for the prickly pears that grow on every field wall, and 🍓 for the strawberries of Mġarr. To drink, 🍊🥤 is Kinnie, the bitter orange soft drink, 🍺 Cisk, the local lager, and 🍷🍇 Maltese wine.

Malta emoji for the sea, the festa and Eurovision

Many Malta emoji messages are about the sea: ☀️🏖️🌊 for Golden Bay and Mellieħa, 🏝️ for the Blue Lagoon of Comino, 🤿🏊 for the clear water that draws divers and swimmers, ⛴️ for the ferry to Gozo. ⛵👁️ is the luzzu, the bright blue, yellow and red fishing boat of Marsaxlokk with an eye painted on each side of the bow, a custom often traced back to the Phoenicians. ⚓ is the Grand Harbour. 🏛️ is Valletta itself, the Knights' city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the Triton Fountain ⛲ outside City Gate and painted doors 🚪 and wooden balconies along its steep streets. 🪨 stands for the Stone Age temples of Ġgantija, Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, older than Stonehenge and the pyramids, and 💣⛪ the Mosta Rotunda, whose dome was pierced by a bomb on 9 April 1942 that fell among the congregation and did not explode.

The main festa season runs from late April to early October; celebrations typically last a week and feature the saint's statue in procession, brass bands 🎺🥁, church bells 🔔 and fireworks 🎆🎇🧨. Carnival 🎭 is traditionally held before Ash Wednesday, Good Friday processions pass by candlelight 🕯️, and at Christmas 🎄⭐ homes and churches set up the presepju, the crib. National days are Freedom Day on 31 March, Sette Giugno on 7 June, Victory Day on 8 September with a rowing regatta 🚣 in the Grand Harbour, Independence Day on 21 September and Republic Day on 13 December.

⚽ is a national passion, and many fans follow English and Italian teams: during a World Cup or Euros, flags like 🇬🇧 and 🇮🇹 and car horns can be seen and heard in the streets. Water polo 🤽 is the summer sport, and 🏇 is the harness racing at Marsa. 🎤🎶 is Eurovision, which Malta follows keenly: its best results are two second places, Ira Losco in 2002 and Chiara in 2005, and it has won Junior Eurovision twice. 🎬 is for the films shot on the islands, from Popeye, whose 1980 set still stands as Popeye Village, to Gladiator and the first season of Game of Thrones. 🚗 drives on the left and 📮 the red pillar boxes are British left-overs, like the three-pin plugs; 🚌 once meant the old yellow buses, retired in 2011, and 🐈 the street cats that neighbours feed in every town.