Why do some of the countries in northern Europe have the same flags?

Question

Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Ice land has the same flags but with different combinations of colors. How come?

Answer 1

If you look at the flags of Europe you will see that most have either stripes or crosses. The stripes are horizontal or vertical, mostly 3 bars.
Crosses are either horizontal + vertical or diagonal.
The Northern countries all selected the crosses, (including England and Scotland, but those later merged to the Great Britain although the separate flags are still in use,) the southern countries all selected the stripes or bars.
Maybe it is the Viking (northern) tradition against the catholic south.

Answer 2

The Danish flag was the original, and was adopted by the other Nordic countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland.

The Dannebrog is the oldest state flag in the world still in use, with the earliest undisputed source dating back to the 14th century.

There are many theories of the origin of the flag for more see wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Denmark

Answer 3

It's called the Scandinavian cross; it's also present on the flags of the sub-national territories of Åland Islands, Scania, Faröe Islands, Shetland Islands, Normandy, Orkney Islands and Karelia.

Answer 4

it looks pretty