You probably know that colour can influence your mood and feeling, but did you know that colours mean different things in different cultures? Take the colour white, for example. In Western culture, White represents goodnes and purity, while in Asian cultures, white is associated with funerals and mourning. In Japan, for example, a white carnation symbolises death, and in India, some people believe that a married woman dressed in all white is inviting death and unhappines.
In China, red is the color of good look and prosperity. When the Chinese give gifts of money on special occasions, they usually put he money in a red envelope. Chinese brides aren`t dresses in white; they wear bright red wedding dresses. On the other hand, in the Western world, red represents danger, which is why warning signs and road signs are often red.
In the past, the Cherokee Indians of North America used to associate color with the four directions; that is, blue represented north, white represented south, red represented east and black represented west. These four colours had other meaninigs too; blue meant defeat, white meant happines, red meant goals; they thought, for example, that red beads had the power to help people recover from illnes or find love. Black beads were used to ask the “black spirits” to help the Cherokees win battles.
Yellow is another colour that has various meanings in different cultures, in the West, yellow is associate with weakness, while in Japan, yellow means courage. In China, the colour yellow represents royalty, but in Myanmar, yellow is associated with mourning.
Green is one of the few colours that most cultures view as being a positive color; on both the East and the West, green is the color of health and life. For the ancient Egyptians, green was a sacred color that symbolised hope and the joy of spring. In Ireland, it is a luckly color and, all over the world, green is a symbol of ecological awareness.
Learning about what meanings colours have in different cultures is interesting and satisfies our curiosity. It can also be very useful for tavellers and in the world of busines. Knowing what colours represent in other countries can help to increase our understanding of other cultures and help us avoid misunderstanding.
