Flag: Aruba

Aruba's flag: light blue, two yellow stripes, a red four-pointed star. The field is a pale sky blue. Two narrow yellow stripes run across the lower half, and a red star with four points and a white border sits in the upper corner next to the pole. The colours are officially explained like this: blue for the sea and sky, yellow for the sun and for the island's old gold and aloe industries, the red star for the island itself with its red soil, and the white border for its beaches. The four points are usually said to stand for the four points of the compass, a nod to the many origins of the island's people. The flag was adopted on 18 March 1976, and 18 March is still Aruba's national Flag Day.

Aruba is the westernmost of the so-called ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), about 30 km north of Venezuela. Its capital is Oranjestad. Since 1986 it has been one of the four countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, alongside the Netherlands, Curaçao and Sint Maarten: it runs its own affairs but shares a king, a passport and foreign policy with the Dutch. Papiamento and Dutch are the official languages, and English and Spanish are widely spoken. The island sits outside the Caribbean hurricane belt, which, together with its white beaches and dry, sunny weather, is why tourism dominates the economy and why its slogan, "One Happy Island", appears on everything from licence plates to souvenirs.

What does it mean when someone sends 🇦🇼?

Pride in Aruba, a holiday there, or support for its teams. In a bio or a name, the flag means the person is Aruban, has family there or feels at home there; a large Aruban community lives in the Netherlands, and many people pair it with 🇳🇱 to show both halves of their life. Next to beach, sun or plane emoji it is a holiday tag: Aruba is one of the Caribbean's busiest tourist islands, and a quick 🇦🇼 says where the photo was taken.

Around sport it is a cheer. Aruba competes under its own flag at the Olympics (since 1988) and in baseball, the island's favourite game: Aruban players such as Xander Bogaerts have reached the top of American Major League Baseball, and the flag fills comments whenever one of them does well. Around Carnival season or 18 March it is plain national celebration.

Two misreadings are worth avoiding. The flag is not a generic Caribbean or "Dutch islands" emoji: Curaçao, Bonaire and Sint Maarten have their own flags and their own pride, and Arubans notice the mix-up. And it is not a substitute for 🇳🇱: it marks Aruba specifically.