The 27 stars scattered across the blue globe on Brazil's flag are arranged to depict which specific scene?
- The zodiac constellations under which Brazil's first constitution was signed
- The star positions used by Portuguese navigators to first reach Brazil's coast in 1500
- The night sky over Rio de Janeiro at the moment the Republic was proclaimed, on 15 November 1889
- The Southern Cross constellation duplicated once for each of Brazil's original colonial captaincies
Why C? And why not the others?
Correct answer: C. The night sky over Rio de Janeiro at the moment the Republic was proclaimed, on 15 November 1889
Brazil's flag shows a blue celestial globe crossed by a white band reading 'Ordem e Progresso' ('Order and Progress', a nod to French philosopher Auguste Comte's positivist motto), and the 27 stars scattered across that globe map the real night sky as it was officially recorded over Rio de Janeiro on the morning of 15 November 1889, the day the monarchy was overthrown and the republic proclaimed; each star also stands for one of today's 26 states plus the Federal District. The zodiac-signing and navigators' star-position stories are invented distractors with no basis in the flag's actual design history. The Southern Cross constellation genuinely does appear among the stars, but only once in its true position, not duplicated for each former captaincy.
Source: Britannica: flag of Brazil (celestial globe, 15 November 1889, positivist motto)