The hundreds of countries that exist in the world vary on many counts, but the one thing that unites them all is that each one is represented by a flag. When most people think about other nationalities, the flags that represent them are not usually the first thing that springs to mind. Nonetheless, when it comes to things that happen on the international stage, these varied rectangles are what differentiates one place from another. Whether it’s an international sporting event or an important political summit, the many different color and pattern combinations have the average person squinting, and wondering what they’re meant to represent. Thankfully, there are vexillologists out there who are more than eager to decode them for us, and some of them even delight us with nerdy memes in the process. If you weren’t invested in the ways in which different places use pieces of fabric to represent themselves before, you will be now.