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Pastafarians, or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

by António Martins-Tuválkin, 8 January 2006

About the FSM Church and its emblems
The flag

See also:

Flags and Religion

About the FSM Church and its emblems

The Pastafarians, or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, are a mock-religious group, aiming for humour and political awareness by ridiculing actual religious groups through imitation and caricature. For details, see this "Church"'s own website at http://www.venganza.org/ or the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastafarian.

Pastafarians use mainly two emblems, both inspired in the Christian fish, as seen on http://www.venganza.org/images/churchbanner.jpg. One emblem has the same "rugby ball" shape of the stylized fish with added eye stalks and tentacles, usually with the initials "FSM" (Flying Spaghetti Monster) on it. Apparently not used in flags, but not unlikely. Other uses seem to abound: see http://www.venganza.org/fish.htm.

The flag

The other emblem is a cartoon-style fish skeleton wearing a pirate eye band. This emblem is used on a flag, white on a black ovoid on a red background, with the fish skeleton "looking" to the hoist. (There's a black vertical stripe at the hoist, which might be just a sleeve, not relevant for the design.) See this flag in real world use at http://www.venganza.org/spread/catalina.htm. The pirate connection has to do with a Pastafarian prophecy that says that "His chosen outfit" "is full pirate regalia", and that Divine punishment, such as "global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s".
António Martins-Tuválkin, 8 January 2006

This flag, with black fish-charged ellipse on red, is shown in use at http://www.venganza.org/2008/05/01/galapagos, in the holy site of the Galapagos Islands.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 10 September 2009

Black variant

by António Martins-Tuválkin, 10 September 2009

An image at http://www.venganza.org/2008/10/24/evangelism, as well as at http://www.venganza.org/2008/05/05/pirate-fish-flag shows in use a simpler design of the pirate fish flag: a plain white fish on black background, in classic pirate layout. Image made using clipart from the Church's official repository of celebratory and pious imagery http://www.venganza.org/materials/.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 10 September 2009

Spaghetti Monster emblem on flag

It is said above that one of the two pastafarian symbols, the "rugby ball"ť shape of the stylized fish with added eye stalks and tentacles, usually with the initials "FSM" is "apparently not used in flags". I found evidence of the contrary, in photos hosted in the Church's official website:
http://www.venganza.org/2009/08/12/pilgrimage-to-the-homeland/
http://www.venganza.org/2008/10/24/evangelism/

by António Martins-Tuválkin, 10 September 2009

Red flags with the stylized spoofed symbol in white filled with seemingly darker red and pinkish letters (which I think is caused by a double cloth layer of white letters on regular red enabling correct reading on both sides of the flag). This design uses clipart from http://www.venganza.org/materials, the Church's official repository of celebratory and pious imagery.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 10 September 2009