Olympic fever is in the air. All around the world folks will be gathering in front of television screens to watch this year’s Olympic games, cheer on their athletes and exhibit their national pride. One of my favorite things about the Olympic is getting to hear all the different National Anthems when different countries win medals.   There’s actually a lot behind anthems, did you know for example that

there are basically two categories of national anthems the hymn, which usually has to do with “God save our country, or our ruler,” and a type that’s more martial and combative. [NPR]

China and France’s anthem as it turns out are of the violent variety.

For folks like me, that love to hear the sounds of other countries, NPR has piece about National Anthems and clips up of anthems from a plethora of places including host country China, France, Germany, Monaco, Australia and Spain.

takepart to listen to them all and tune in to the Olympics on NBC to see what other anthems you can hear depending on who wins!

Read on:

• An Olympic Flag Bearer for the US, A Champion of Darfur
• Beijing’s Pollution Not Gone, Just Moved Outside of Town
• Celebrate Beijing 08 With Our Top 10 Olympic Movies

*photo by Flickr 365