Flag: Guadeloupe Emoji

The flag of Guadeloupe, a butterfly-shaped French Caribbean archipelago 6,700 km southwest of Paris and 600 km southeast of Puerto Rico. The emoji does not show the French tricolore. Guadeloupe is a French overseas department and region and its official flag is 🇫🇷, but most platforms render 🇬🇵 as the locally used unofficial flag: a black field with a yellow 30-rayed sun and a green sugarcane stalk, with a narrow blue stripe at the top carrying three yellow fleurs-de-lis. The design is drawn from the coat of arms of Basse-Terre, the administrative prefecture. The sun stands for the Caribbean light; the sugarcane for the plantation economy that shaped four centuries of island life; the fleurs-de-lis for the Bourbon-era royal grant that gave the colony its first heraldry. There is also a 'regional logo' flag used for institutional branding by the Région Guadeloupe (a stylized sun-and-bird on a green-and-light-blue square), but the Basse-Terre design is what phones display.

Guadeloupe has been part of France since 1635, a département d'outre-mer617483_EN.pdf) since March 19, 1946, and an outermost region of the European Union since 1958. Guadeloupeans vote in French national elections, carry EU passports, use the euro, and are represented in the National Assembly and Senate in Paris. The archipelago is roughly 384,000 people across two main islands (Basse-Terre, the mountainous volcanic west; Grande-Terre, the flat limestone east, joined by a narrow channel and a bridge) plus four satellite islands (Les Saintes, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, Petite-Terre). Basse-Terre is the administrative capital; Pointe-à-Pitre on Grande-Terre is the economic center where the airport, cruise port, and biggest commercial district sit.

Socially, 🇬🇵 runs on four engines. The first is zouk, the musical genre invented in 1979 by Kassav' between Paris studios and Pointe-à-Pitre, with 'Zouk la sé sèl médikaman nou ni' (1985) certifying Gold in France and spreading a Guadeloupean Creole hook to Latin America, Africa, and lusophone Europe. The second is the 400,000-plus Antillean diaspora in metropolitan France, concentrated in Paris, Lyon, and Marseille, and tracing back to the BUMIDOM migration program that routed 160,000 Guadeloupeans and Martiniquais to European France between 1963 and 1981. The third is the two-month Carnival from early January to Ash Wednesday, with the ritual burning of king Vaval closing the season and unique local traditions (Mardi Gras red 'diables rouges', the Lundi Gras Mariage Burlesque satirical same-sex mock weddings, Mi-Carême Mid-Lent revival). The fourth is La Soufrière, the 1,467-metre active volcano that is the highest point in the Lesser Antilles and the only active volcano anywhere in France. Added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015 as the regional indicator sequence U+1F1EC U+1F1F5U+1F1EC U+1F1F5.

🇬🇵 has four big posting windows and a steady baseline driven by the metropolitan-France diaspora. Carnival season (early January to Ash Wednesday) runs for roughly eight weeks, with weekly Sunday parades, Gwoup a po drummers playing ka drums and chachas through Basse-Terre, Pointe-à-Pitre, and Le Moule. Dimanche Gras, Lundi Gras's Mariage Burlesque, and Mardi Gras's red 'diables rouges' processions anchor the final week before the Ash Wednesday burning of king Vaval in Pointe-à-Pitre. Diaspora accounts in Paris, Bondy, Massy, and Aulnay-sous-Bois post clips of their pop-up Carnival groups through the season.

May 27 Abolition Day is the single biggest patriotic window. Commemorates the May 27, 1848 effective abolition of slavery in Guadeloupe, a month after Victor Schoelcher's April 27 Paris decree (the Paris decree went unenforced locally until the enslaved population forced the issue). Flag-raising at the Mémorial ACTe, the slavery-and-abolition museum built on the old Darboussier sugar refinery site in Pointe-à-Pitre. Fête des Cuisinières in early August carries the cooking-and-costume pride of the island: the Women Cooks of Pointe-à-Pitre parade in full Creole madras and golden jewelry from Basilique Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul to the Saint-Antoine hall, a tradition running continuously since 1916. Route du Rhum finish window (November every four years) turns Pointe-à-Pitre into a sailing festival for two weeks as the solo transatlantic yachts cross in from Saint-Malo; the next edition is November 2026. Outside those peaks, a steady baseline of football content runs under 🇬🇵, since Guadeloupean players and players of Guadeloupean descent (Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram, William Gallas, Marius Trésor, Jocelyn Angloma, Dimitri Payet, Thomas Lemar) account for a durable share of France's international stars.

The 2021 to 2022 LKP general strike reshaped how the flag is used on social. What began as a vaccine-mandate protest on November 15, 2021 escalated into a four-and-a-half-month revolt about cost-of-living (a grocery cart on Guadeloupe costs roughly 40% more than in European France) and about decisions made 7,000 km away in Paris. Macron called the situation 'explosive.' Since then, 🇬🇵 next to 🇫🇷 reads differently on a Paris feed than it did before: a flag of distinct identity, not of metropolitan belonging.

• 🏛️
  Capital: Basse-Terre (administrative prefecture, on Basse-Terre Island). Pointe-à-Pitre on Grande-Terre is the economic and population center, where the airport, cruise port, and commercial district sit.
• 👥
  Population: ~378,000 (January 2024, [INSEE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Guadeloupe)). Plus 400K+ Antillean diaspora in metropolitan France.
• 🦋
  Area: 1,628 km² (628 sq mi). Butterfly-shaped: Basse-Terre volcanic west + Grande-Terre flat limestone east, plus Marie-Galante, Les Saintes, and La Désirade.
• 💱
  Currency: Euro (€) since 2002. Outermost region of the EU, fully integrated Eurozone.
• 🗣️
  Languages: French (official). Guadeloupean Creole (Kréyòl Gwadloupéyen) is the everyday household language of most residents.
• 🏛️
  Government: Overseas department and region of France since March 19, 1946. Votes in French national elections. Represented in the National Assembly (4 deputies) and the Senate (3 senators).
• 📞
  Calling code: +590 (shared with Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin since they were all one administrative unit until 2007).
• ⏰
  Time zone: AST (UTC-4), no daylight saving. Same as Atlantic Standard Time year-round. One hour ahead of New York in winter, five hours behind Paris in winter.
• 🌐
  Internet TLD: .gp (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2). Managed by the Networking Technologies Group SARL.

Foods that show up next to 🇬🇵

Landmarks that anchor travel content

Guadeloupe is a 1,628 km² archipelago in the eastern Caribbean, between Dominica and Montserrat. The Kalinago people (Island Caribs) called it Karukera, meaning 'the island of beautiful waters', when Columbus arrived on November 4, 1493 and renamed it Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura after the Spanish monastery. Spain made no serious settlement. On June 28, 1635, the French Compagnie des Îles d'Amérique took possession under Charles Liénard de l'Olive and Jean du Plessis, and Guadeloupe became the second-oldest continuous French Caribbean possession after Saint Kitts.

The plantation economy arrived in the 1640s with sugar, and with it the mass forced migration of enslaved Africans that shaped the island's demography. Sugar exports made Guadeloupe briefly wealthier than Martinique, and the 1763 Treaty of Paris saw France choose to keep Guadeloupe and cede all of New France (including Canada) to Britain instead, a trade whose lopsidedness makes more sense when you remember that sugar at the time was worth more per hectare than any North American commodity.

Slavery was first abolished in 1794 by revolutionary France, reinstated by Napoléon in 1802 (with the bloody suppression of the Louis Delgrès resistance at Fort Saint-Charles in Matouba), and then abolished permanently on April 27, 1848 in Paris by a decree pushed through by Victor Schoelcher. In Guadeloupe, enforcement took a month longer: emancipation took effect on May 27, 1848 when the enslaved population stopped waiting for the decree to be implemented. That is the date Guadeloupe commemorates each year, not April 27.

Guadeloupe was made a French overseas department617483_EN.pdf) on March 19, 1946 under the Loi de Départementalisation, alongside Martinique, French Guiana, and Réunion. A 2003 referendum rejected full regional autonomy, but a 2007 referendum let Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin (previously part of Guadeloupe's administrative territory) split off to become separate overseas collectivities. The archipelago thus lost around 45,000 people and two of its most tourist-heavy islands. The Basse-Terre coat of arms design has been used locally as a Guadeloupean flag at least since the 20th century; it became the flag rendered by emoji platforms when Apple, Google, and Microsoft chose it over the regional-logo alternative in 2015.

• 🎭
  Early January: Carnival season opens: [Guadeloupe's Carnival](https://en.europcar-guadeloupe.com/discover-guadeloupe/when-to-go/carnival-in-guadeloupe) runs roughly from the first Sunday of January to Ash Wednesday. Weekly Sunday parades. Gwoup a po drummers and chachas. Different focus town each week.
• 🔥
  February 15 to 18, 2026: Carnival peak week: Dimanche Gras (Feb 15, musical parade), Lundi Gras (Feb 16, Mariage Burlesque), Mardi Gras (Feb 17, red 'diables rouges'), Mercredi des Cendres (Feb 18, Vaval burning and half-day public holiday).
• 🎭
  March 12, 2026: Mi-Carême: Unique to the French Caribbean: a one-day Carnival revival in the middle of Lent, with red-and-black costumed parades briefly returning to the streets. Not observed in metropolitan France.
• 🦐
  April 3 + 6, 2026: Good Friday and Easter Monday: Families camp on Grande-Anse, Ste-Anne, and Plage de la Caravelle beaches on Easter Monday for matoutou crab feasts.
• 🕊️
  May 27: Abolition Day: Commemorates [May 27, 1848](https://publicholidays.la/guadeloupe/abolition-day/), the effective date of slavery's end in Guadeloupe. Public holiday since 1983. Ceremonies at the Mémorial ACTe in Pointe-à-Pitre.
• 🇫🇷
  July 14: Bastille Day: French national holiday. Military parade in Pointe-à-Pitre, ceremonies at the Préfecture. Guadeloupean soldiers march alongside metropolitan units.
• 👩‍🍳
  Early August: Fête des Cuisinières: [Women Cooks' Festival](https://www.regionguadeloupe.fr/guadeloupe-regional-council/guadeloupe-a-land-of-champions/) since 1916. Cooks in full Creole madras process from Basilique Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul to Saint-Antoine hall, carrying platters. Held on the Saturday closest to August 10.
• 🚴
  First two weeks of August: Tour Cycliste International: [Guadeloupe's Tour de France-equivalent](https://www.regionguadeloupe.fr/guadeloupe-regional-council/guadeloupe-a-land-of-champions/), a UCI 2.2 stage race running since 1948 around Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre. The biggest sporting event of the year.
• ⛵
  November 2026: Route du Rhum finish: The 13th edition of the [Route du Rhum](https://www.routedurhum.com/en) finishes in Pointe-à-Pitre in November 2026. Two weeks of celebrations at the Port as the solo transatlantic yachts arrive from Saint-Malo.
• 🎄
  December 25: Noël: Chanté Nwèl (Christmas singalongs) dominate December. Boudin créole, jambon de Noël, pois d'Angole, igname, and pâté en pot at the Christmas Eve réveillon.

• •Guadeloupe is butterfly-shaped: two main islands (Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre) joined by a narrow channel called the Rivière Salée, which isn't actually a river (no freshwater flow) but a tidal strait. The Pont de la Gabarre and the longer Pont de l'Alliance cross it today.
• •Confusingly, Basse-Terre is the mountainous one and Grande-Terre is the flat limestone one. The names refer to wind exposure, not size: Basse-Terre sits on the 'low wind' leeward side, while Grande-Terre gets the trade winds. Basse-Terre-the-island holds Basse-Terre-the-town (the administrative prefecture), while Grande-Terre holds Pointe-à-Pitre (the economic and population center).
• •La Soufrière on Basse-Terre is the only active volcano in any part of France. At 1,467 metres it is also the highest point in the Lesser Antilles arc. The 1976 partial eruption triggered one of the most controversial evacuation decisions in French civil-defense history: 73,600 people were moved for months, and the volcano never produced the feared major eruption.
• •Ash Wednesday is a public holiday in Guadeloupe but not in metropolitan France. The island also observes Mi-Carême, a Mid-Lent Carnival revival on a Thursday between Ash Wednesday and Easter, when red-and-black costumed parades briefly return. No other French territory observes Mi-Carême as a cultural event of this scale.
• •In 1763 at the Treaty of Paris, France chose to keep Guadeloupe and cede all of New France (Canada) to Britain instead. Sugar at the time was more profitable per hectare than any North American crop. The trade looks absurd today, but the math worked in 1763.
• •The Fête des Cuisinières (Women Cooks' Festival) has run every year since 1916. Cooks in full Creole madras and golden jewelry process from the Basilique Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul in Pointe-à-Pitre carrying platters of accras, boudin, colombo, and bokits, honoring Saint Lawrence the patron of cooks. It is one of the longest continuously running food festivals in the world.
• •Thierry Henry, the France 1998 and 2000 star, was born in Ulis (Essonne) to a father from Martinique and a mother from Guadeloupe. Lilian Thuram, the most-capped French international in history, was born in Pointe-à-Pitre. Both identify strongly with Guadeloupe; both fly 🇬🇵 on social during Carnival and May 27.
• •The BUMIDOM program (Bureau pour le développement des migrations dans les départements d'outre-mer), active 1963 to 1981, routed roughly 160,000 Guadeloupeans and Martiniquais to unskilled jobs in metropolitan France. The program shaped the modern Antillean diaspora in Paris, Lyon, and Marseille, and is a frequent reference point in Guadeloupean Creole rap and zouk lyrics.

• •🇬🇵 is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1ECU+1F1EC (G) + U+1F1F5U+1F1F5 (P). ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code: GPGP.
• •Shortcode: :flag_gp::flag_gp: or :guadeloupe::guadeloupe: on most platforms.
• •The .gp country-code TLD was delegated in 1996. Guadeloupe shares its +590 calling code with Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin, which were administered from Guadeloupe until 2007.

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