Flag: Grenada Emoji

The flag of Grenada: a red border with six yellow stars (for the six parishes), green and yellow triangles pointing inward, a central red disc with a star, and a nutmeg on the left triangle. That nutmeg isn't decorative. Grenada produces about 20% of the world's nutmeg, making it the second-largest producer after Indonesia. It's the only country in the world with a specific crop featured on its national flag.

Grenada is called the 'Spice Island' for good reason. Beyond nutmeg, it grows cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and turmeric. But the island's story goes well beyond agriculture: it's home to the world's first underwater sculpture park, a Carnival tradition (Spicemas) rooted in post-slavery resistance, and a sprinter who collected the full set of Olympic medals in the 400m.

🇬🇩 shows up in Caribbean diaspora posts, especially from Grenadians in New York (Brooklyn's Little Caribbean has a large Grenadian community), London, and Toronto. Usage peaks around Independence Day (February 7), Spicemas/Carnival (August), and Thanksgiving Day (October 25, which in Grenada commemorates the 1983 US invasion, not the American holiday).

The flag also appears in Kirani James fan posts. When he won Grenada's first-ever Olympic medal (gold in the 400m at London 2012 at age 19), the island of ~113,000 people flooded social media with 🇬🇩. He's done it two more times since: silver in Rio, bronze in Tokyo.

• 🏛️
  Capital: Saint George's, on the southwest coast
• 👥
  Population: ~113,000 (2024 est.)
• 🗺️
  Area: 344 km² (Grenada main island, plus Carriacou and Petite Martinique)
• 💵
  Currency: East Caribbean dollar (XCD), pegged at 2.70 to USD since 1976
• 🗣️
  Languages: English (official); Grenadian Creole English and French-Creole Patois (Patwa) spoken locally
• 📞
  Calling code: +1-473
• ⏰
  Time zone: AST (UTC-4), no daylight saving
• 🌐
  Internet TLD: .gd

Grenada's flag was adopted on February 7, 1974, the day the country gained independence from over 200 years of British colonial rule. It was designed by Anthony C. George, a native Grenadian from Soubise in Saint Andrew Parish.

The previous flag had been simpler: horizontal blue-yellow-green stripes with a nutmeg in the center. George's redesign kept the nutmeg (how could you drop the island's identity?) but built a more complex design around it. The six stars on the red border represent Grenada's six parishes. The central star on the red disc represents Carriacou and Petite Martinique, Grenada's sister islands. Green stands for vegetation and agriculture, yellow for the sun and the warmth of the people, red for courage and vitality.

Grenada's post-independence history is unusually turbulent for a Caribbean island of its size. In 1979, Maurice Bishop's New Jewel Movement seized power in a nearly bloodless coup). Bishop's government expanded healthcare, built housing, and cut illiteracy from over 30% to under 5% in three years. But in October 1983, he was overthrown and executed by hardliners within his own party. Six days later, the US invaded under Operation Urgent Fury, the largest American military operation since Vietnam at that point. October 25 is now Thanksgiving Day in Grenada, marking the end of the crisis.

Then came Hurricane Ivan in 2004, which damaged over 80% of the country's buildings and destroyed 80% of its nutmeg trees. The cost exceeded twice Grenada's GDP. Nutmeg trees take at least seven years to bear fruit after replanting, so the island's defining crop didn't fully recover for over a decade. 🇬🇩 was added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.

• 🎉
  January 1: New Year's Day: Public holiday.
• 🇬🇩
  February 7, 2026: Independence Day: Saturday. Commemorates independence from the UK on February 7, 1974. Flag-raising at Queen's Park.
• ⛵
  April 3 to 6, 2026: Easter window: Good Friday, Easter Monday. Easter Monday regatta in Carriacou.
• 🥁
  April 28, 2026: Carriacou Maroon and String Band Festival: Annual three-day festival on the sister island celebrating African spiritual heritage, saraca feasts, and drumming.
• ⚒️
  May 1, 2026: Labour Day: Trade union marches.
• ☀️
  May 25, 2026: Whit Monday: Pentecost Monday.
• ✝️
  June 1, 2026: Corpus Christi: Catholic holiday.
• 🎭
  August 3 to 4, 2026: Spicemas: Emancipation Monday and Tuesday. Carnival peaks with J'Ouvert pre-dawn, Jab Jab through the streets, Pretty Mas parade on Tuesday. Peak 🇬🇩 window of the year.
• 🦃
  October 25, 2026: Thanksgiving Day: Grenada's unique Thanksgiving, commemorating the 1983 US intervention that ended the political crisis after PM Maurice Bishop's assassination. Not a harvest festival.
• 🎄
  December 25 and 26: Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

• •Nutmeg was introduced to Grenada in 1843 when a merchant ship stopped on its way from the East Indies to England. Nobody planned it. It just grew really well in Grenada's volcanic soil.
• •Hurricane Ivan (2004) destroyed 80% of Grenada's nutmeg trees. The total damage exceeded twice the country's GDP. Recovery took over a decade because nutmeg trees need 7+ years to bear fruit after replanting.
• •Grenada's Thanksgiving Day (October 25) celebrates the end of the 1983 political crisis and US intervention, not the American Pilgrim harvest. It's one of only two countries that celebrate Thanksgiving alongside the US, but for completely different reasons.
• •Cacao was first brought to Grenada by the French in 1714. By the 1760s, Grenada was producing about 50% of all British West Indian cocoa exports.

• •Kirani James became a global story at the 2012 London Olympics when, at 19, he won Grenada's first-ever Olympic medal: gold in the 400m in 43.94 seconds. He went on to win silver in Rio (2016) and bronze in Tokyo (2020), becoming the first man in the event's 100+ year Olympic history to collect all three medal colors.
• •Operation Urgent Fury (1983) put Grenada on the American news map. The US invasion after PM Maurice Bishop's assassination was controversial internationally but popular domestically. Clint Eastwood's 1986 film Heartbreak Ridge fictionalized the invasion.
• •The Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park, installed by Jason deCaires Taylor in 2006, was featured by National Geographic as one of 25 Wonders of the World. The sculptures double as artificial coral reefs.

• •🇬🇩 is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1ECU+1F1EC (G) + U+1F1E9U+1F1E9 (D). ISO code: GDGD.
• •Shortcode: :flag_gd::flag_gd: or :grenada::grenada: on most platforms.

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