diff --git a/compose.yml b/compose.yml
index f0bec2b..aa1c97e 100644
--- a/compose.yml
+++ b/compose.yml
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@ services:
 
   mariadb:
     image: "mariadb:10.5"
+    command: |
+      mysqld --character-set-server=utf8mb4 --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
     environment:
       - MYSQL_DATABASE=gitea
       - MYSQL_USER=gitea