Five-pointed star
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A five-pointed star, also referred to as a Pentagram or a star, is a very common ideogram in the western world,. If drawn with points 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 and has particularly strong associations with military power and war and, more recently, communism.
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[edit] Flags
 U.S. Naval Jack |
 The flag of Morocco |
 The flag of Ethiopia |
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.
[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 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] Other uses
 The Star and Crescent of Kappa Sigma |
 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] See also
- Complete graph; the complete graph on five vertices can be drawn as a pentagram
- Heartagram
- Heptagram
- Hexagram and Seal of Solomon
- magic and magick
- Morning Star
- Mullet
- Pentagon
- Pentacle
- Pythagoras
- Red star
- Star (glyph)
- List of symbols
- Nonconvex uniform polyhedra with full icosahedral symmetry (many show a pattern of pentagrams)
- Order of the Eastern Star
- Libri tres de occulta philosophia
[edit] References
- ^ 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.
