Flag: Bulgaria

The national flag of Bulgaria: white on top, green in the middle, red at the bottom. Bulgaria is a country in south-eastern Europe on the Black Sea, with Sofia as its capital, around seven million people, Bulgarian as its language and Cyrillic as its alphabet. The flag emoji is built from the two regional-indicator letters B and G, the country's international code, which your phone draws as one flag.

The design dates from 1879, the year Bulgaria got its first constitution after five centuries of Ottoman rule. It copies the white-blue-red tricolour of Russia, whose army had fought the war of liberation, and swaps the blue for green. The usual explanation of the colours, taught in Bulgarian schools though not written into law, is white for peace and freedom, green for the fertile land and forests, and red for the courage and blood of those who fought for the country.

The same three colours appear on several other flags, so read the order: Hungary runs red–white–green, Iran green–white–red with a central emblem, and Italy sets its green–white–red stripes vertically. Bulgaria is the only one that starts with white at the top and ends with red at the bottom.

What does it mean when someone sends 🇧🇬?

They are pointing at Bulgaria: their roots, their trip, their team or their language. Sent after a plan or a photo, it means "I'm going to Bulgaria" or "this is Bulgaria": the Black Sea beaches around Varna and Burgas, the ski slopes of Bansko and Borovets, Sofia, or Plovdiv, one of Europe's oldest living cities.

In a profile it almost always marks heritage or language. Millions of Bulgarians live abroad, especially in Germany, Spain, the UK, the United States and Turkey, so 🇧🇬 often sits beside the flag of the country the person now calls home, in the sense "Bulgarian, living in London". In a list of flags it can also mean simply "I speak Bulgarian".

Around a match it is plain fan support: football above all, but also volleyball, rhythmic gymnastics, weightlifting and tennis, sports where Bulgaria has a strong tradition. The flag carries no political message on its own; it is the same flag under every government since 1990, and treating it as a statement about politics usually misreads the sender.