I work to hide my eccentricities -people just wouldn't understand. And my obvious ones sometimes bug others... I'm known by my nieces and nephew as "Crazy Auntie" !!
So far as I am aware it has always been so. It is the flag of St. George who is our patron saint. The Union flag (commonly called the Union Jack) is the flag of the UK
Edit due to wanting to include my country's flag.