I’m wondering if anything resembling the american ritual of pledging allegiance to the flag exists in other countries.
Canada has none that I know of.
Norway has nothing equivalent for the majority of its’ citizenry, but in certain cases the military and portions of the judicial and legislative branches take - explicit - oaths to serve the nation.
However, and this is a curious part, if you’re ever in the Army you’ll quickly run into the slogan “For konge og fedreland.” (For King and Fatherland) However, the full quote is actually “For konge, fedreland og flaggets heder” - For King, Fatherland and the honour of the flag." It’s far, far less widely used.
There is, however, the concept of “lojalitetsforpliktelse” or loosely translated, obligation to loyalty, which is implicit and expected in citizenship.
ETA: Not to be confused with the actual motto of the Norwegian Army, which is “For Fred og Frihet” (For Peace and Freedom)
Jamaica:
http://www.jis.gov.jm/special_sections/Independence/anthem&Pledge.html
There’s also a national poem that most adults seem to remember from their schooldays, but I couldn’t google it up.
Jamaicans are very political and patriotic, and the country has never considered itself too poor to afford two or more political parties.
Upon further consideration, this is the closest thing we have to a pledge of allegiance. 
We sort of pledged allegiance to the Queen, by singing this:
Not in the UK.
Those who are being naturalised as Australian citizens have to make some sort of commitment of loyalty to Australia, its laws etc. There’s nothing for the rest of us though.
We only have pledges for certain specific functions, such as being an MP. In that case, it’s: I, [name], do swear, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
New citizens swear the following oath:* I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen.*
The closest I ever got to making a pledge was joining the Brownies. We find the whole flag-worshipping, chest clutching thing a little weird. That’s in the UK by the way.
I’ve said before that during the playing of the national anthem at sporting events, the American puts his hand on his heart. The Canadian keeps his hand on his beer. That about sums it up, I’d say.
I think it is important to remember that Americans pledge allegiance to their flag. To Canadians (and as Matt has pointed out), any pledge of allegiance we may have is to the sovereign–currently, Queen Elizabeth II. So no pledge of allegiance to our flag is warranted. Our flag is nice, and we certainly respect it and hope others do too; but we don’t tend to hold it in the same regard as Americans do with theirs.
Korea has one.
When I was in school it was the following:
As I stand before our glorious flag, I solemnly pledge that I will show my loyalty by sacrificing my body and my soul for the endless glory of my people and my country.
(rough translation)
Now it’s changed to:
As I stand before our glorious flag, I solemnly pledge to be completely loyal to the endless glory of the free and just Republic of Korea.
:: shrug :: I didn’t even know it had changed until just now. It rarely gets said. I honestly haven’t heard the pledge since I graduated high school.
Germany doesn’t (well, would be pretty weird and sick if we did), and I gotta say, basically forcing every student to say it every day for 12 years seems a little bizarre to this outsider.
Yeah, I’ve got to agree. It’s bordering on creepy imo. It seems like something North Korea would do.
You can’t be legally forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance in the U.S.: West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette - Wikipedia. But peer pressure is admittedly strong.
Although reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is a relatively common civic ritual in American schools, Scout meetings, public meetings of school boards and the like, there are also specific oaths for elected officials, judges, magistrates, police officers etc. Those oaths are to the constitutions of the U.S. and of the particular state, and not to the U.S. flag.
To elaborate: the Pledge that gets said by underage minors because of peer pressure would not only be highly controversial, but also not legal and therefore useless. (In addition, because of the past, we don’t have flags inside schools, or outside public buildings, unless they are decorated for a special event. Whenever I see flags outside our university, I know a special event is up).
We do have oaths of allegiance for Public Servants, Judges, Politicans like Chancellor, Minister etc. Basically, you swear to do your utmost best to do your duty and that you will uphold the laws of the country. One version has God, and the other has empty space, you can choose yourself what you say.
Here is the German wikipedia article on the oath of office.
(Translation by me)
The oaths for civil servants are a bit shorter, just fulfilling their duties and keeping the laws.
Nothing says freedom like indoctrinating children! 
It was bizarre as an insider, too. I can see an affirmation as part of a coming-of-age ceremony or something, but daily? As a kid it always felt like they hadn’t believed my pledge from the day before. (Not to mention the fact that I didn’t really understand the meaning until I’d been saying it for three or four years.)
As a younger nation with a relatively high proportion of immigrants, the purpose is to create a sense of cultural unity based on the nation-state rather than people’s pre-existing ethnicities. Almost every country has something that fulfils that function (like the anthem mentioned above). Some work, some don’t; some seem silly to outsiders, some don’t.
The South African education department tried to introduce a pledge for schools but it experienced a lot of opposition and as far as I know it wasn’t implemented.
It’s also bizarre because the current version is so poorly written. The Pledge of Allegiance was meant as a symbol of national unity - however, we added the “under God” bit in the 1950s to show that we weren’t godless commies. :rolleyes: Rather takes away from the all-inclusive character of the thing.