Patriotic oddities

11 craziest national anthems — including Spain’s wordless march

Image: Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández

National anthems are meant to inspire pride and unity, but some stand out for their oddities—whether in lyrics, melody, or length. From surprisingly short tunes to unconventional themes and even wordless anthems, these 11 national songs break the mold. Join us on a melodic journey around the world!

Image: Colton Jones

Japan’s anthem, Kimigayo, is one of the shortest in the world, lasting only about 45 seconds. Despite its brevity, Kimigayo dates back more than a thousand years, as its lyrics are based on a poem from the Heian period (794-1185).

Though in modern times the emperor of Japan has taken on a symbolic role, the lyrics express wishes for the emperor’s reign to endure eternally. The melody, for its part, is a minimalist composition that contrasts with the grandiose style found in many other national anthems.

Image: Daniel Prado

Spain’s anthem, La Marcha Real, is one of the few national anthems without official lyrics. Used since the 18th century, this purely instrumental anthem leaves words to personal or regional interpretation.

Attempts to add lyrics over time have failed due to political and cultural divisions, reflecting Spain’s complex history of strong regional identities.

Image: Mister Paps

Mozambique’s anthem, Pátria Amada, is the only national anthem in the world to explicitly mention a weapon of war—the Soviet-designed AK-47 rifle—as a symbol of defense and liberation. The silhouette of this rifle is even depicted on the national flag.

But despite appearances, the anthem is not merely a militaristic boast; it reflects the country’s struggle for independence, honoring the weapon that played a key role in overthrowing colonial rule.

Image: Alex Houque

Curiously, Liechtenstein’s anthem shares its melody with the British anthem, "God Save the Queen." The tiny principality adopted the tune in the 19th century, though with different lyrics.

However, this musical borrowing isn’t as unusual as it seems, since many countries at the time used the same tune, which in turn is believed to have originated from a traditional folk melody.

Image: Thiago de Andrade

Switzerland has four official national anthems; one for each of its four official languages. Each linguistic region uses the anthem in its own language: German, French, Italian, and Romansh.

This multilingual approach embodies the country’s cultural diversity, ensuring every citizen hears the anthem in their native tongue.

Image: iSAW Company

Unlike many national anthems that focus on heroes or battles, Dominica’s anthem highlights the island’s lush nature and the value of freedom.

It’s easy to see why natural beauty forms the foundation of national identity, given the island’s extensive jungles and thermal waters.

Image: Caleb Miller

The Vatican’s anthem is technically the Papal Anthem, which represents the Pope, not the state itself.

As a religious sovereign entity, the Vatican lacks a traditional national anthem, emphasizing the spiritual rather than territorial nature of the city-state.

Image: Magdalena Smolnicka

Malta’s anthem, L-Innu Malti, is one of the shortest national anthems, with lyrics in Maltese, a Semitic language with Romance influences.

Its melody is simple and direct, highlighting the island nation’s resilience and the cultural blend between European and Arabic influences.

Image: Григорий Захарьян

Turkmenistan’s anthem is known for its length and poetic language, extensively praising both the president and the country’s beauty.

Adopted in 1996 under the country’s authoritarian regime, the anthem blends national pride with glorification of leadership and has been subtly adjusted over time to mirror shifts in the country’s power structure.

Image: Matt Artz

Greece’s Hymn to Liberty is the longest national anthem in the world, consisting of 158 stanzas.

Written by Dionysios Solomos in 1823 during the Greek War of Independence, it originally was a lengthy poem celebrating freedom from Ottoman rule. Only the first two stanzas are officially used as the anthem, but the full text reflects deep historical and patriotic significance.

Image: Pedro Slinger

Uruguay’s anthem, Himno Nacional, is famously long and musically intricate, often lasting over four minutes.

Composed in 1833 by Francisco José Debali, it features multiple sections and a dramatic, operatic style. While its full text is shorter than Greece’s anthem, more stanzas are typically performed at public events, making it longer in practice.

Words from the cold North

Going back to the roots: 10 Nordic words borrowed by English

Image: Sami Matias Breilin

Romance languages, led by French, have had such a lasting influence on English that we sometimes forget that it is actually a Germanic language, and as such, a relative of the Nordic languages.

However, Nordic languages had left their mark on English centuries before the French-Normans even attempted to conquer England, and they continue to do so to this day. Let’s have a look at some words of Nordic origin that are ingrained in everyday English.

Image: R Mo

The terms for window used by Old English and Old Norse were both related to the word ‘eye’, but were different. In Old English, the common word was eagþyrl or ‘eye-hole’, while Old Norse used vindauga or ‘wind-eye’. V_indauga_ was one of the many words adopted into English during the Viking invasions and evolved into ‘window’ during the Middle English period.

Image: Mustafa Bashari

Did you know that the original English word for egg was æg, and it was pronounced like ‘eye’? The word as we know it now was adopted from Old Norse around the 14th century. For a while, egg coexisted with eyren, the plural of æg, but the Norse term was ultimately more popular.

Image: Ferdinand Stöhr

What do the words fjord, ford, and port have in common? They all come from the same Indo-European word meaning ‘crossing’, but through different languages. Old English ford retained the meaning of ‘a shallow river crossing’, while Latin portus was adopted as port (a harbor), and Old Norse fjǫrðr was adopted as fjord (an inlet or estuary that gave passage from the sea to the land).

Image: Maarten Duineveld

Nordic countries deal with much more snow than England, so the adoption of snow-adjacent vocabulary seems only logical. In addition to this, most of the English terms that start with sk- are of Norse origin. The word ski comes from the Old Norse skíth (meaning ‘snowshoe’), and it was adopted into English during the 18th-century. Related words such as slalom (a sloping track) are of the same origin.

Image: Ruslan Bardash

This word, from Swedish origin, was adopted in the 1950s, but it is actually a portmanteau. The original name was trampcykel med motor och pedaler or ‘pedal cycle with engine and pedals’. It seems that the name was a mouthful even for the Swedish, because the shortened version was coined by them.

Image: Hannah Busing

Nowadays, gang can have a negative connotation in some contexts, but it can also be used in a more neutral sense. This neutral use (gang as ‘group’) comes from Old Norse gangr or ganga, meaning ‘going’ or ‘journey’. Adopted into English, the meaning of gang shifted to ‘a group of people’.

Image: Christian Lue

People want the things that they don’t have, and that is the origin of this very important English verb. In Old Norse, vant was a neutral form of vanr, ‘deficient, lacking’. Vanta was ‘to be lacking’. Although the word was adopted by English with the meaning of ‘lacking’ something, its original notion was later extended to ‘needing’ and then ‘desiring’.

Image: Devon Janse van Rensburg

The origins of this term are Scandinavian, most likely the Swedish skúfa, meaning ‘to shove’ or ‘to push’. It was adopted into English in the 1500s to describe small, clumsy tussles and fights, though it later adopted also the meaning of moving in a confused or hurried way.

Image: Sixteen Miles Out

A much more modern term, hygge became popular in English in the last decade. This Danish word is impossible to translate, and it's used to describe a feeling of coziness, contentment, and comfort. Through its Old Germanic roots, hygge is related to the English hug.

Image: Emily Campbell

Did you know that geysers are named after an Icelandic geyser called Geysir? The name comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, meaning ‘to gush’ or ‘to go forward’. The Icelandic word for geyser is goshver, but Geysir was so famous that English adopted it as a generic name for all spouting hot springs in the 18th century.