St Andrew’s Day: Facebook offers users ability to celebrate feast day with flag, but only a Romanian one

Scottish users greeted the strange flag with confusion, and the icon has now been changed to a Saltire

Scotland cannot call a referendum unilaterally

Many Facebook users have been left confused after indicating that they were celebrating St Andrew’s Day in Scotland — only to be presented with another flag entirely.

Facebook offers a feature that allows people to indicate what they are doing, including celebrating holidays. But clicking it to indicate that someone is “Celebrating St Andrew’s Day” brings up a strange result.

Users had expected to see a Saltire, or Scottish national flag, pop up after they made the choice. But instead they were greeted by the blue, yellow and red of Romania’s flag.

The option has now been changed, so that the blue and white of the Scottish flag shows up instead. And users can click through to choose whatever they want.

The confusion appears to have begun because St Andrew’s Day is celebrating across a range of countries, which as well as Scotland and Romania also includes Poland, Ukraine and elsewhere. It is’t clear how Facebook chooses the flag that displays and it may be that it looked for the first country name in alphabetical order.

St Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Russia, Italy’s Amalfi and Barbados. St Andrew was not born in Scotland and never stepped foot in the country, and didn't become its official patron until 1320 — more than 15000 years after he died.

The Saltire flag is a reference to the X-shaped cross that the saint was crucified on.

Facebook does allow people to change the flag that first comes up. Clicking on it brings up a whole range of emoji — which include faces and those related to sporting events, as well as a massive range of flags — and users can click the one they want to get access to a new one.

Google is also celebrating the day with a Doodle that depicts the Loch Ness monster in a Saltire-coloured lake.