Colour in folklore and tradition—The principles

Colour In Folklore And Tradition—The Principles

John Hutchings6 Queens Road, Colmworth, Bedford MK44 2LA, United Kingdom

Received 30 November 2002; revised 29 January 2003; accepted 20 February 2003

Abstract: Human beings use colour to manipulate theirpersonal appearance and environment. A large part of thisusage falls within the area of oral tradition and ritual thathave been handed down within families, tribes or geograph-ical areas. The resulting images are part of our culture;they are activities that give us feelings of belonging and ofdoing the ‘right thing’. Two surveys were designed to learnmore of these very human activities. The first centered onBritain and Ireland; the other was international. Threemajor driving forces were found for the use of colour infolklore and symbolism—economic, historical and social.The Principle of Adaptation of Physical Resources accountsfor the choice of mourning colours of most countries. Co-lour usage in death echoes the three approaches to mourn-ing of sadness, joy (for the life of the dead), and fear of thespirits of the dead. The Principle of Adaptation of Ideasaccounts for regional variations in colour folklore. Thisembodies a Darwinian-type principle of behavior, that is,“to survive within a community a belief must have rele-vance to that community.” A major principle of folk medi-cine involving colour is the Principle of curing like withlike. There are four Principles of Colour Selection in folk-lore—by the contrast displayed, as a transfer from theperceived or actual usefulness of the colour, by association,and by availability. Green above all colours has especialsignificance both in the UK and Ireland. In everyday lan-guage it is the Principle of Singularity that controls use ofcolour words as symbols. The biological mechanism per-mitting these many and contrasting uses of colour dependson the fact that colour is a perception, not the property of anobject. That is, a colour can ‘mean’ whatever we wish it to‘mean’. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 29, 57–66, 2004;

Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

DOI 10.1002/col.10212

Key words: history; color preference; folklore

INTRODUCTION

Colour and appearance are essential to the well being ofmost living organisms. In common with that of other animalspecies, our total appearance, that is our colour, colourpatterning, design and behavioral display, have adapted tophysical, geographical, climatological and sexual environ-ments.1 As human beings our imagination and creativity aswell as the availability of colour give us power to manipu-late our appearance and environment. We have exploitedour colour vision so that colour now forms a highly signifi-cant part of modern life. Colours we use in everyday life tellstories about ourselves. For example, body decoration andclothing betray upbringing and membership of particularsocial groups. Colours used on special occasions belong tofamily and tribe. Folklore is about what we do as a matterof course, about what we believe and how we behave as wego about our lives. Colour in folklore encompasses suchevents as a European mother insisting her daughter marrieswearing a white dress. This is not a statutory requirement, itdoes not carry the force of law, indeed it may happen onlyonce in a lifetime. It is what mother sees as essential in theprevailing set of circumstances. There are two major moti-vations for colour use in daily life. One broadly results fromlegislation; the other is tribal or personal. The legislativedriving force is provided by regulation and includes suchcolour uses as traffic lights, supermarket staff uniforms,heraldic devices and choice of automobile colours. These donot form part of oral tradition and hence have been omittedfrom further discussion.

To step back, images comprising the total appearance ofa scene are controlled by two groups of factors: first, thescene material physics and design working together; andsecond, properties of the observer—that is, his or her sen-sory characteristics, heritage and immediate environment.Colour used as symbols and in our oral tradition form partof the viewer’s heritage within a specific environment playa profound part in the creation of scene images.2

The aims of the project were twofold. The first was tosearch for evidence for colour use in custom, oral tradition

Correspondence to: (e-mail: [email protected])© 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Volume 29, Number 1, February 2004 57

and language. An in depth approach was adopted for Britainand Ireland with a questionnaire approach being used toelicit evidence from other countries. The second aim was toexamine the evidence and look for patterns of human be-havior. The investigations were supported by the ColourGroup (Great Britain) and The Folklore Society. This articlecontains a description of the surveys and an analysis of theresults.

THE SURVEYS

Contributions were invited via notices and letters to folklorejournals, newsletters and selected local press, as well asfrom interested individuals living in the British Isles andIreland. In support of the study I searched the oral traditionlibraries of the Folklore Society, the Warburg Institute Lon-don, the Center for English Cultural Tradition and Lan-guage at the University of Sheffield, the School of ScottishStudies at the University of Edinburgh, University CollegeDublin, the Welsh Folk Museum, Cardiff and the UlsterFolk and Transport Museum, Belfast. These archives werecommenced mainly around 1960. Approximately 1200items of folklore from all sources have been analyzed.

For the international survey questionnaires were used.These contained sections on colours for rites of passage,calendar associations of colours, colours of traditional foodsand lucky colours. Responses were patchy. From Japan 97completed questionnaires were received, from other Asiancountries 21, Britain 29, other countries in Europe 13,Africa 7 and the Americas 6. A logical method of analysiswas to compare Japan and Britain and include contributionsfrom other countries where relevant.3

Colour and appearance have various functions in oraltradition. For example, they are used to identify the centralcharacter, perhaps a bride, and the occasion, such as aseasonal decoration. In traditional stories and activitieswhite and black may be used to portray good and evil,sometimes red symbolizes the colour of blood or is used tofrighten. In amulets and charms, colour and appearance actas visible and tangible declarations of belief and no doubtact as a psychological reinforcement of purpose. In sometraditional activities, for example in Britain the decorationof the bride before her wedding day, use of specific coloursis irrelevant; it is appearance that is important.

Fourteen colour and colour related words have varyingdegrees of significance within the general area of folklore ofBritain and Ireland. They are, with frequency of use, white(219), black (176), red (161), green (83), blue (48), silver(24), yellow (17), brown (15), gray (12), dark (11), pink(11), gold (8), purple (5), fair (4). There were also singlereferences to cream, khaki and orange. Also occurring werematerials possessing dominant colours such as salt (14),soot or coal (10) and red rowan berries (4). Colours wereapplied to omens (312), clothes and dressing up (192),flowers (188), rites of passage (161), calendar customs (19),cures and amulets (59), food (29), weather lore (26), fishing(26) and animals (18).4

A detailed analysis revels that there are three types of

driving force for the folkloric use of colour: economic,historical and social. The colour green occupies a specialand complex place in the folklore of the UK and Eire; hencethere are separate sections on unlucky green and the place ofgreen in the folklore and tradition of Ireland. Finally, thereis a brief account of the use of colour words in languagesymbolism using green as an example. In the text invertedcommas enclose quotations from survey respondents orfrom the literature.

DRIVING FORCES FOR THE USE OFCOLOUR IN FOLKLORE

The Economic Driving Force

There is nothing inevitable about the way a colour is usedfor a specific purpose. For example, there is no feelingacross cultures that a particular colour is the most suitablefor a bride. However, a custom widely accepted acrossmany international boundaries is the use of achromaticcolours black, gray and off-white for mourning. These arecolours of cheap, readily obtained, easily cleaned materialsthat are available for wearing for work and for all suchoccasions of respect. They provide suitable dress for indi-viduals unable to afford to spend money on something thatwould be worn rarely. This is the Principle of Adaptation ofPhysical Resources—they use what is available. The diver-gence of Chinese white and European black for mourning issometimes said to exhibit how these cultures are totallydifferent. This need not be so. Both cultures use achromaticcolours optimized in different directions, one to white theother to black. In fact in Britain at a time of death both blackand white are traditionally used. Although the colour ofmourning is black the traditional laying out room is whiteand the body is normally given a white covering. From themiddle of the nineteenth century dyes became less costlyand, for example, deep purple came into fashion in Britainas a second-degree mourning colour.5

Note, the use of achromatics for funerals is not world-wide. Bright colours are worn during funeral ceremonies inBali and Mexico. Highly colored coffins shaped accordingto the occupation of the dead person are common in Ghana.Another exception is the use of red in West Africa and itstransportation with slavery to the West Indies and southernstates of the USA. In these places red is associated withprotection from evil spirits.

“De women all heard dat Ella Speed was dead,They all went home an’ they re-ragged in red.”6

Hence, around the world colour appropriately echoesthree principles of approach to death. These are sadness ofdeath, the celebration and happiness for the dead or for thelife of the deceased, and fear of the dead and protectionfrom the spirits of the dead.

The observations on achromatics may be extended to thecolour of the groom’s dress at the conventional ‘western’

58 COLOR research and application

wedding and the dark-coloured best clothes traditionallyworn by male guests.

The Historical Driving Force

Many pieces of folklore are or are said to be derived fromhistorical events. These are discussed under the headings ofPolitical, including folklore transfer by migration, and theSupernatural. Historical aspects of unlucky green and theplace of green in Irish folklore are presented later.

PoliticalAlthough national colours are matters of legislation, theirtranslation into everyday use belongs to folklore. Historicaldriving forces include the use of colour in a patriotic sense.In Britain, maypole dance ribbons are very often the red,white and blue colours of the British flag. In Japan theintroduction of red rice as a dish used to celebrate happyoccasions coincided with the introduction of the red andwhite national flag in 1870. This occurred at the start of aperiod of Japanese industrialism and imperialism. This ef-fect also occurs in reverse. In Finland during World War IIRussian occupied houses were painted a particular shade ofblue. For long after the forces withdrew this colour couldnot be used for marketing as it was associated with badmemories of the occupation.

Customs, although tending to be individual to a culture,are transferred by movement of peoples through migration,capture or the spread of religion and tradition. Alreadymentioned is transmission by slavery. The ‘western’ whitebride’s dress was spread around the world by colonialismand trade. The traditional bridal red, black and white (orecru) in Middle and Eastern Europe, can be found fromSweden in the north to Italy and Greece in the south.

Bridal reds, by body painting or in the dress, occur in abroad band around the world from China in the east, throughIndia to the Near East, and continuing through North Africain the west. The route taken into India may have beenthrough the northeast via Assam from China or through thenorthwest via the Aryan Iranian Indo-Europeans. Thesemigrations occurred in the years following 4000 B.P. (Theuse of red by an Indian bride is first mentioned in theRigveda, the book of Indian custom, written 4000 yearsago.) In 5000 B.P. women in Ancient Egypt and Mesopota-mia used henna to colour their hands and feet. This wasbelieved to counter evil.

Belief that green is unlucky (see later) has traveled toNorth America, no doubt imported by immigrants fromBritain and Ireland. Hence, it is unlucky to marry in greenin Texas,7 in the Midwest it ought not be used for racingcars,8 and it is even bad luck to ride in any vehicle of thatcolour in Arkansas.9 Folklore sometimes migrates or istransferred, not always faithfully, between cultures. It isreported that department stores in Tokyo showed FatherChristmas nailed to a cross on the top of a Christmas tree!10

But perhaps this is also folklore.

The SupernaturalThe use of colour in worship normally takes the form of adesign such as the Christian cross. It is the design not thecolour that provides the focus of worship. However, onsome occasions it appears that colour itself is sacred. Forexample, splashes of turmeric made on the wall by a mar-ried couple in India are worshipped.11 Also in India themere application of a streak of vermilion on the bride’s headcan be sufficient to create a Hindu marriage.12 In Australiaspecific colours have specific functions within Dreamtimeart, many being ritual and sacred in nature.

The couple must look their best on the wedding day. Thisincludes not only their clothes, but also the colour andcondition of their skin. Skin may be lightened, as in India,or darkened, as in Africa, as culturally appropriate to in-crease desirability. In cultures in which marriages are ar-ranged this practice must increase immediate attraction be-tween the couple. However, in some countries the bridemust not look too good. Anyone or any thing lookingperfect or beautiful is said to be trying to copy and henceblaspheme God, therefore man-made beauty must bespoiled with black (or dirt). Chimney sweeps can be hired inBritain to bring good luck to a marriage by touching andspoiling the appearance of the bride’s dress on her weddingday.

Black has also long been of protective and curative value.For example, in nineteenth century Northern India husband-men hung black pots in fields to scare spirits and evade theevil eye, while young women and children had their eyelidsmarked with lamp black. Similarly, charcoal was buriedunder the threshold to guard the household from harm, andalso used as a preservative for milk.11 The colour black isalso important in Scottish New Year customs. If the firstperson to enter the house on New Year’s Day is a darkhaired man carrying a lump of coal the family will havegood luck during the coming twelve months. [Conversely,in many countries the appearance of a red-headed personpresages bad luck.]

Another aspect to this sacred nature is that specific col-ours are apotropaic, that is, they protect. In Europe theprotective colour is red; in the Middle East it is blue.

The Social Driving Force

Healing Uses of ColourCuring like with like is a major principle of folk medicine.Cures for jaundice may involve an infusion of the yellowsap of the barberry, or gin or beer containing saffron. Redamulets help cure ailments such as fevers and rheumatism.The use of green in cures revolves mainly around the greenof vegetation. Evergreens, particularly those bearing fruit inwinter, have long been powerful life symbols.13 Eatinggrass from churchyards, lettuce, or dosing with concoctionsprepared from fresh or dried bramble arches, holly, palm,mandrake, vervain or yarrow will cure or protect from anumber of complaints.14 Antibiotics are made from green


mould. In general, natural greens can be used for the cure ofspecific complaints or to deflect the glances of the evil eye.

There are instances in which a green colour is used as asubstitute for greenery. There are sixteenth and early sev-enteenth century references to the substitution of hoops of“green woodbine” with green thread in cures for consump-tion.15 Cures involving the use of specifically colouredmaterials have been advocated since Babylonian and Assyr-ian times. Green stones such as green jade or nephrite wereused to assist women in childbirth, or those suffering fromkidney troubles, as well as to improve fertility in man andbeast.16 Without assuming continuity, in nineteenth-centuryIreland green and black stones gathered in a moving streamwere used in a charm for hip-joint disease.17 Other greenstones had magic properties. An example was the stoneglobe of St. Molingus, which was said to have the power tocause disease and procure victory for the MacDonalds ofScotland.18

Rites of PassageMourning colours are discussed under Economic Forces,and further discussion is mainly confined to marriage. Col-our has significance to all six stages of marriage. Ceremo-nies that take place before the wedding include the informaldressing of the couple. On the wedding eve in Scotland thegroom may be ‘blackened’, that is, stripped naked, coveredwith soot and water, and wheeled around town in a wheel-barrow. This is another example of the appearance of blackin Scottish folklore. In Britain as a whole the bride-to-bemay be dressed up by her work mates. Specific colours arenot important; she is dressed in whatever colours are avail-able.19 In pre-wedding ceremonies in parts of the Hindu andMoslem worlds colours, especially turmeric and henna, areused to drive away evil spirits.

The dressing of the bride, groom and members of theprocession often represents a large proportion of the wed-ding expenditure. In some cultures contrast between brideand groom is emphasized. In others, couples marry in thesame colours. Examples are Hindu (red), Parsee (white),and the Yoruba in Nigeria (bright colours to emphasize thefusing of two individuals into a unity). Colour symbolismused in the ceremony itself includes the use of red andyellow components at Hindu weddings. The marking of thebride with a colour includes the Hindu use of vermilion, theMuslim henna, and the western gold ring. Specific coloursmay also be used in festivities following the wedding.

The bride’s dress makes her look both beautiful and thecentral figure of the ceremony. Some wear a fashion-in-spired creation that sets her totally apart, giving her nothingvisually in common with others present. However, the pur-pose of the once traditional black dress found in parts ofIberia was said to make her unattractive to all but thegroom.20 This explanation may work through the associa-tion of black as a funeral colour or as a colour of ill omen.The red or yellow worn in India had the specific purpose to“repel demons.” In Palestine the change of dress colourduring the wedding ritual indicates the bride’s change oftribe on marriage.21 In the Shetlands the bride’s white dress

seemed to represent a welcome into the ranks of the marriedand carried with it the right to wear it at subsequent wed-dings in the Islands.22 In some areas the bride wears her bestdress, often itself a marker of her community, with theaddition of sufficient extras to mark her as the central figure.These extras may be, for example, a hat in Hungary orribbons in nineteenth century England.

It is appropriate that wedding colours are also luckycolours, that a colour associated with an inherently happyoccasion should carry with it the hope for a good andfruitful life ahead. The coincidence is perhaps more a matterof coevolution than one of which came first. An examplemay be the use of blue in Britain for long a symbol of truelove and faithfulness. However, the purity meaning of whitewas established in Europe before its widespread use bybrides.

The ancient use of reds, perhaps dating back 4000 years,has been indicated on the Indian subcontinent and may haveits origin as a defloration colour.23 Red is the colour ofblood, therefore the colour of life, and also the colour ofbridal purity. However, the red may also be the symbol ofripeness as in crops to be harvested. In Assam, for example,Bihu dances “of ancient origin,” which take place annuallybefore the rains, emphasize fertility of the woman and of thefield to be different expressions of the same force. Prosper-ity of the village depends on the abundance of both. Thedancers wear “creepers and flowers and other designsmostly in bold red colour: the red as seen in Bihu songs isa symbol for ripeness.”24

Calendar CustomsThe traditional British home is decorated once each year incelebration of Christmas. In Japan there are two importantcelebrations. These concern a celebration for girls, hinama-tsuri, and the Christmas/New Year period. Girl’s Day, acelebration first popularized in the nineteenth century, oc-curs on March 3rd. The festival is designed for the amuse-ment of girls below adolescence although boys are allowedto join in. This occurs in the season of peach blossom. “Wedisplay peach blossoms. They are pink, so we associate pinkwith this Girl’s Day.”25 Like other happy occasions pinkand red foods are eaten (see later).3

Christmas in Britain is associated with red and green.This association has recently been imported into Japancoinciding with a decline in traditional Buddhist practiceand its compatibility with existing customs of the New Yearperiod. The lucky red and white are traditionally associatedwith New Year’s Day. “The celebrations begin � withbonenkai, or ’forget the year’ parties. � Events begin towarm up towards the end of the month, with decorationsappearing over doorways, and red and white cabbages beingplanted auspiciously in tubs.”26 Much of the traditional foodeaten over this period is red and white.

FoodThere are many traditions concerning food and eating, andcolour, central to communication and aesthetics, can befound playing an essential role.27 In the normal eating


situation, foods must be within the colour range the eaterhas been brought up to regard as proper. Colour is also amechanism for conferring health, as well as reinforcing andtransferring good luck to the important occasions of lifesuch as marriage. This includes colours specific to specialoccasions.

Aspects of appearance as well as colour are important intraditional foods. On Lammas (loaf mass) Day, celebrationsin medieval England included, the baking of loaves col-oured red (with rose-petal), golden orange (saffron), yellow(lemon), green (parsley), blue (thistle), indigo (plum), andpurple (violet). Iced fruitcakes, optionally tiered, are cus-tomary for weddings and christenings in many countries.28

People of all religions ceremonially share foods duringcelebrations. Table settings and room decoration also playtheir part in festive meals. In food colour preferences thereare regional variations (darker foods are preferred in thenorth of England, lighter in the south), and age variations(children prefer brighter colours than adults).29 There arealso international differences in the colour of traditionalfoods.

Rice is the staple diet of half the human population and asource of much colour folklore. Although the most commonvariety is white, rice does occur naturally in a number ofother colours. In China black, red, yellow, and violet riceare used to treat various medical conditions, while rice thathas been dyed red is given to wedding guests. Rice colouredyellow with turmeric or saffron is widely used in custom inIndia, Pakistan and Malaysia. White rice is used as a con-trast colour in celebratory dishes. In Japan, red rice balls(steamed rice mixed with red beans) form an essential partof the celebration of many happy occasions such as wed-dings, New Year’s Day, or anniversaries. Although mostrice is white in colour, to the Zumbagua in the EquadorianAndes rice can be ethnically white. A neighbor may be seenas pretentious for cooking it as an expensive food stands forwealth, a cheap one for poverty.30

Over a large area of Europe and the East although manycolours are used to dye eggs, red is the most popular. In2900 BP these were exchanged by the Chinese at springfestivals. Today in Britain they are used in Easter gamessuch as egg rolling. In Romania, where red painted eggs arecalled love apples, and Slovenia they represent love andhealth. In Hungary, where the name for Easter eggs is pirostojas or red eggs, and in Russia, Yugoslavia and Greecethey represent the blood lost by Christ on the cross.31

Symbolism of the familiar concerns the routine of every-day life and everyday foods at normal meal times. Thisrepresents security. Quality assessment comes under thisheading; food of incorrect colour arouses feelings of inse-curity.

UNLUCKY GREEN

In Britain and Ireland green is an unlucky colour and manywill not wear it.32 Some will not have the colour in theirhome. The link between green and courtship and weddingsis particularly strong. For example, “My brothers in-law

(from Forres in Moray) were most keen to prevent mewearing green to his wedding—they knew it was a favoritecolour but insisted it was most unlucky to wear at a wed-ding.”33 The earliest reference found observed that “[thebride was] bedizened with ribbons � of every � colour �except forsaken green, which I was glad to perceive was notworn by one of the throng.”34 The bad luck is reinforced atwedding celebrations in the northeast of Scotland. If theyounger sister marries first, the luckless and disgraced eldersister is taunted by being made to wear green stockings orgarters at the dance after the wedding. Reasons given andpostulated for this bad luck are numerous and are as mucha part of folklore as the belief in bad luck itself. They arediscussed under the headings of supernaturalist, rationalistand historical.

Supernaturalist Explanations

Among mythical characters fairies take much of theblame. They are associated with green through their habit ofdancing in green fairy circles (Tempest act 5 scene 1), fromthe fact that their graveyards never brown,35 and that inmany areas they are reported to wear green. In the OuterHebrides, green objects were called blue; “green must notbe mentioned, lest it should call up the fairies.”36

In Britain fairies are usually reported to wear green, butthis is not the case in Ireland. Searches at University CollegeDublin and Ulster Folk and Transport Museum revealed thatthe fairies wore red, or white, or black or blue, or brown, orin the north green. Andrews ascribed the regionalism indress to different tribes among the aboriginal inhabitants ofthe island.37 However, they are as likely to have beeninfluenced by settlement in the north of the Scots andEnglish. In the southwest of England the Piskies are blamedfor the unlucky aspect of green. For example, “I was oncetold off by a Cornish ‘grandmother in law’ for wearinggreen the piskies colour.”38 Green gowns are worn bywitches,39 devils and demons.40 The hunter wears green tohide among the greenery so that he may kill animals shel-tering there; the Devil wears green to hide himself amongmen so that he may capture their souls.41

God’s control over nature is cited as a reason for unluckygreen. “My father was a Highland Scot, when we wereyoung he would not allow us to wear green. I don’t think hewas superstitious, he was a devout Presbyterian and he feltas the Almighty had clothed His world in green, it waspresumptuous of us to wear it—a kind of irreverence.”42

Another argument is that green-leafed trees are followed byblack bark in winter and black is for mourning. Hence toavoid death one must avoid wearing green.43

There are a number of instances where green is unluckyfor fishermen. For example, “Staying in the west of Ireland(Bantry Bay) with my cousins who live there I was told thatfishermen there never wear green on a fishing trip.”33 Also“Green and brown were unlucky colours, presumably be-cause they were earth colours,” that is, the rocks would‘attract’ them.44 In spite of its association with bad luckgreen is worn by the members of the association football


club team in the fishing port of Plymouth, England. Thiscelebrates the association of the town with the story thatCaptain Drake played bowls on the town green before he setsail to defeat the Spanish Armada. The Glasgow CelticFootball Club team also wears green but this club wasformed within an Irish community in Scotland.

Rationalist Explanations

Rational reasons for unlucky green include the stomach-ache that comes after eating overripe green meat or unripegreen fruit. In the nineteenth century it was the colour ofgreen arsenic-pigmented wallpaper which, when damp,gave off the poisonous gas arsine. Green is the continualcolour of the churchyard, where, in addition, the deep greenpoisonous yew trees are grown. In 1876 near Eccleshall anold woman was found drowned in her well. “A patch ofparticularly green turf long marked the spot where her bodywas laid on being taken out of the water, and the neighbors,who had suspicions of foul play, pointed to this in confir-mation of their opinion.”45 Bede was the first to write aboutthis, “At the same time a traveler, a Briton, came near theplace where [St.] Oswald had been killed, and saw the grasswas greener than in other places, and concluded that someholy man had been slain there.”46

The bad luck of green may have developed from theequation of the green gown and the loss of virginity. In 1351Wm Fox, parson of Lee near Gainsborough was indicted, inthat he forcibly took a nun, Margaret de Everingham, “re-moved her habit and put on her a worldly green robe.”47 ByElizabethan times the phrase ‘having a green gown’ wassynonymous with pregnancy.48

Rivers and pools in the north of England are often said tobe haunted by the malevolent spirit Jenny Greenteeth, whodrags down those who come too near. The legend seemsdesigned to warn of the presence of the giant green duck-weed, Lemna minor, which covers large stretches of waterthere and is dangerous to step on.49

The theatre provides its own reason for the actors’ super-stition of wearing green. They say it belongs to the fairieswho might resent its use by mummers and actors.50 A morepractical explanation is that during the era of green-tingedlimelight, invented in 1826 and used until the beginning ofthe present century, an actor wearing green would not standout as well as his colleagues.“51 Similarly, the green roombehind the stage is the same colour as the limelight so itwould not be seen from the auditorium.52

Irish fairies, especially in the south, do not wear green sothe fairy explanation for unlucky green may not be appro-priate. This may revolve around the ease and cheapness ofdyeing cloth green and brown. “Only the rich could affordscarlet, blue and purple clothes. Green and brown are there-fore the dress of the poorest of the population, and it mustbe unlucky to be poor.”53

Historical Explanations

Specific historical events may have provided reasons forunlucky green. Descendants of the Ogilvies, Grahams and

Sinclairs of Caithness, all of whom wore green in theirtartans at the battle of Flodden in 1513, thereafter held thecolour in disrepute after the terrible defeat when most werekilled.40 In England violence revolved around the colour inthe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Whig GreenRibbon Club was formed during the period of religiousintolerance that followed the death of Charles I and the CivilWar. Members of the Club, who wore green ribbons in theirhats, advocated a Protestant succession to the throne. A plotto kill Catholic King Charles II and his brother James in1683 failed. The Whig movement was disgraced, member-ship became a risk, and the Club died.54

During Oldham wakes week in 1819 Radical Reformers,wearing green and red ribbons inscribed “liberty or death”in their hats, demonstrated against the Corn Laws and theconsequent high grain prices. This was followed by themassacre of demonstrators at Peterloo on August 16th ofthat year.55 In 1820 another event reinforced the hatred ofgreen in Britain. Until then official government bags weregreen. At the trial of Queen Caroline wife of the PrinceRegent, later the unpopular George IV, evidence against herwas laid on the table in the House of Lords in these bags.They became hateful to Londoners whose sympathy she hadaroused. “It was a common thing during the trial to get upbonfires to burn the green bag. � After this green bagssilently disappeared.”56

GREEN IN THE FOLKLORE OF IRELAND

Ireland adds its own particular complex (and not totallyagreed) dimension to the colour green. There are threestrands to this dimension—Saint Patrick, the People and theBloodshed, and the Emerald Isle.

Saint Patrick is inevitably associated with Ireland and theshamrock. For example, Boswell records in 1776, “It wasSt. Patrick’s Day, and seeing the Irish with the green crossesin their hats, gave me sensations of spirit which I connectwith Ireland.”57 Green may have been adopted as the colourof Ireland in imitation of the shamrock.58 Today, on SaintPatrick’s or Green Ribbon Day, green still has positiveconnotations among both Roman Catholics and Protestantsin the North and the Republic alike. The five million Irishmigrants to North America during the seventeenth, eigh-teenth and nineteenth centuries took green with them. To-day the Irish there have no hesitation in celebrating StPatrick’s Day with green clothes, make-up, and greenbeer.59 Even the Chicago River may be dyed green for thecelebration60

Henry II of England was acknowledged King of Irelandby a Council at Cashel in 1171, although his claim predatesthis. The commission set up by Edward IV (king of England1461–1470, 1471–1483) appointed to discover the arms ofIreland, suggested that the banner of Saint Edmund, flownby early Anglo-Norman invaders, would be suitable. Thisbanner displayed three gold crowns on a blue background.Henry VIII (king of England 1509–1547) abandoned thecrowns in favor of the harp, presumed to be an emblem ofthe old kings of Ireland.61 The earliest depiction of the Irish


harp on a blue ground was in a French armorial of the latethirteenth century.62 The blue shield with a gold harp withsilver strings remains the official arms of the Republic ofIreland as borne by the presidential flag.

The flag of the people (as opposed to the flag of thePresident), the Irish harp on a green ground, was in exis-tence in the middle of the seventeenth century. Its originsare obscure. “When green was first thought of as the colourof all others that is distinctive of things Irish, history isunlikely to be able to inform us.”63 However, “in early Irishmythology the sovereignty of Ireland is symbolized as awoman, sometimes dressed in green, sometimes in purple ordeep blue.”64 The early Irish poets saw the country as“woven from the green of the fields and the purple of thehills.”65

Invited by Tory and Whig opponents of James II, Williamof Orange accepted the throne of England and reigned from1689 to 1702. Irish Catholics supported James II wholanded with French and Irish forces in 1689 and besiegedthe Protestant stronghold of Londonderry. In the followingyear William with his English and Dutch army met and beatJames II at the Battle of the Boyne. After the Williamitevictory and during the eighteenth century the Anglo-Irishgentry saw themselves as ‘Irish’ through their ownership ofthe land. “They adopted the harp, Saint Patrick (and prob-ably green).”66

The use of the green flag then seems to have beenovershadowed by the blue but a resurgence of significancecame with the 1798 rebellion. Contemporary writers statedthat green was adopted by the Irish malcontents as a na-tional and revolutionary colour.58 The acceptance of greenby the people as an Irish symbol is illustrated by its wide-spread use in the Volunteer and other flags. Indeed, theuniforms of many such organizations had been changed tocontain green by the time of the rebellion.63 The green flagsurvived as the national banner and was used consistently asthe flag of Ireland until 1916. This was in spite of theinclusion in 1801 of ‘St Patrick’s’ cross in the Union Jack,the flag of the United Kingdom.

The current flag of the Republic of Ireland is the orange,white and green tricolour. At the time of the rebellion in1798 green was the colour of the nationalists and the irrec-oncilable orange was the anti-Catholic, anti-nationalist col-our. The Orange Order was formed in Ulster in 1795 andnamed in memory of William III of Orange. Before 1848“the colours orange and green had come respectively tosignify the upholders and opponents of establishment:loosely at first the Established Church party on the one handand Catholics and dissenters on the other, this division beingtransformed later into a simpler Protestant and Catholicdivide.”66 The first mention of a three coloured deviceoccurs in 1830 in a letter from Miss Amelia Eleanor Ham-ilton of Dublin to the Marquess of Westmeath. She quotedEdward Lysaght’s verse:

“May orange and green no longer be seenDistained with the blood of our island.”

Miss Hamilton saw the symbolism of orange as “of apatriot king, a necessary revolution and a bill of rights; thegreen of that heart-cheering hue which a residing aristoc-racy can easily confer on our cultivated bogs and moun-tains; and the white of a virtuous and peaceful people’sfairly elected representatives in parliament.”63

Ireland and France were historically close as during theeighteenth century half a million Irishmen had fought forFrance. The overturning of the French throne in 1848 in-spired a linking of the ideas of the revolution with the spiritin Ireland. The symbol of the revolution was the tricolour,and the French republican colours struck a cord with theIrish public. The first use of the Irish version was 1848.Thomas Francis Meagher, a revolutionary leader later con-victed of high treason, was active in its promotion, “Thewhite in the center signifies a lasting truce between the‘Orange’ and the ‘Green’, and I trust that beneath its foldsthe hands of Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may beclasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.”63 The tricol-our, widely used during the Dublin rebellion of 1916, thensuperceded the green flag as the flag of the new IrishRepublic.

There are three instances in which the term Emerald Isleis applicable to Ireland. In 1159 Henry II was given Irelandby Nicholas Breakspear, alias Adrian IV, the only Englishpope. This was on condition he invaded Ireland and re-formed the church. John of Salisbury wrote that “He sentmoreover by me to the King a golden ring, adorned by a fineemerald, in token of his investiture with the government ofIreland and this ring is still, by the King’s command, pre-served in the public treasury.”67 The second connection iswith the colour of the lush grassland of the Ireland, encour-aged by the warm wet north Atlantic rains. This is oftendescribed as emerald green. In celebration of either or bothitems the poem Erin was composed by E J Drennan in 1795.

“Arm of Erin! prove strong; but be gentle as brave,And, uplifted to strike, still be ready to save;Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defileThe cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”

In summary, three elements have combined to fostergreen as the essence of Ireland—Patrick, the People and thePoets. Relics of the saints provide comfort and inspiration,as do associations such as the shamrock with Saint Patrick.Green became a substitute for the shamrock and the greenflag supported the fight for the formation of the Republic.Once seen to be their colour it was the people who droveforward its total adoption, via uniforms, favors and flags, intheir fight against the common enemy. In fact, the flag of theRepublic might still have been green had it not been for theFrench Revolution. Reinforcing the impetus for green anddriving the folklore back in time were the poets, who soughtto advertise the lushness and myth of the Irish landscape,and the songwriters, who linked these with the patrioticvision of the green. Thus green is unlucky but it is also thecolour of Irish nationhood.63 Hence, it must be worn but itmust not be worn. Thus, “� green is our national colour. I


have often heard that it is worn as a sign of hope. Perhapsit hasn’t brought us much luck.”68

COLOUR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SYMBOLISM

The traditional function of a flag is to reinforce a sense ofpurpose, to act as a focus, and to inflate emotions. Whenfeelings and emotions are symbolized in writing and speech,colours act like flags to reinforce meaning and association.Fundamental to all colour symbolism in language is that acolour means anything we decide it to mean.32 The mech-anism involved can be illustrated using the above discussionof green in language symbolism.

Green, as all major colours, has many symbolic mean-ings69 which involve both positive and negative feelings andemotions. For green most of these appear connected withlife, springtime and growth or with decay. Indeed, green andgrowth have common origins through their Old High Ger-man root. A brief look at Shakespeare (1564–1616) pro-vides examples. Positive associations include freshness andfertility, hence youth and innocence ([Romeo]: “Hath not sogreen, so quick, so fair an eye, As Paris hath,” (Romeo andJuliet act 3 scene 5); hence also unripeness, inexperience,ignorance (“You speak like a green girl,” Hamlet act 1 scene3). Negative associations derive from the colour of unripefruit, mould, decomposition and decay. They include thegreen of poison and those emotions related to poison such asenvy and jealousy (“Beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is thegreen-eyed monster,” Othello act 3 scene 3).

Once such rules are established (that is, green symbolizinggrowth, its use in cures and denoting bad luck), beliefs orusages that grow around it normally work for the perceivedneeds of the community and regionalism occurs (for example,the numerous ‘reasons’ for unlucky green). The beliefs arelimited only by the imagination and variation can result instartling polarities. Referring to the above three rules:

1. Growth symbolism applies to apparently irreconcilablepositive and negative feelings and emotions; also, notonly is, say, organic farming seen as being ‘good for theenvironment’, but green is used to advertise noxiousand dangerous materials, processes and places such aspackaging and atomic power stations;

2. Cures can be made using green objects in place of realgreenery.

3. The reasons for bad luck exhibit a high degree ofvariation differing with community.

The positive and negative nature of symbolic green is notconfined to the English language. For Hindus and Buddhistsit can mean life and death,70 for Chinese, life and disgrace,71

for Muslims in North Africa, growth and corruption.72

Some authors seem uncomfortable with the idea that colourscan have such diverse meanings. Wallis-Budge, for exam-ple, writes that a colour is either good or bad. Green, hesays, is good, symbolizing hope and confidence.16

All common symbolic meanings for green are derivedfrom the growth that occurs in springtime and the growth of

decay. This phenomenon appears to be cross-cultural, hencenon-regional. Apparent contradictions can be resolved usingthe Principle of Singularity. This states that “at any onetime, to any one person, a colour symbolizes only oneemotion or feeling regardless of what that colour maysymbolize to another person or to the same person onanother occasion.” This principle can be seen at work in thesupermarket, where shoppers seem happy that package col-our codings mean what the marketing men say they mean.Ireland is an extreme example where green must be worn(as a statement of nationhood) but must not be worn (be-cause it is unlucky).

Attempts are occasionally made to attach meanings tosubtle shades of green. A mid-nineteenth century text notedthat wedding dress ribbons coloured grass-green indicatedyouthful jollity, popinjay-green meant wantonness, willowmeant forsaken, and sea-green indicated inconstancy.73

Such subtleties, then as now, seldom gain wide acceptancebecause of disagreements on the names to be attached toparticular shades.

CONCLUSIONS

There appear to be four methods by which particular coloursbecome linked with folklore events. Choice is governed bythe contrast displayed, as a transfer from the perceived oractual usefulness of the colour, by association, and byavailability.

Colour has been used since before the times of the cavepainters. In the modern world it is used for aesthetic pur-poses, for communication and safety, such as colour coding,for identification, such as the delineation of ritual areas, andfor symbolism. A colour applied as part of a painting to awall, an artifact or to a human body is a signal, a commu-nicator of information. To be effective it must be visible,and to be visible there must be colour contrast. The largerthe colour difference the more visible the signal. Such arethe principles behind early heraldic and flag designs. Thelargest contrast available to us is that existing between blackand white, between dark and light. These colours are widelyavailable, blackish colorants from fire, and whitish fromclays. They are equated anthropologically with two of thethree body fluids (excrement and milk). Red, the colour ofblood, would seem to be the automatic choice for the thirdmember of the triad especially as it is also of good contrastwith the other two colours. The triad is also symbolicallylinked with the black, white (ash) and red (flame) of fire(Edeline, private communication).

Anthropologically the colours black, white, and red arenominal descriptions. The actual colour range of red includespaler and darker reds, browns, oranges and some yellows. Thisrange occupies a large part of colour space, only greenish,bluish and purplish hues are excluded. It might be argued thatthe wide availability of red from minerals, blood, burned earth,and vegetable sources, again renders it as an automatic choicefor a third colour. There is evidence, however, that the choiceof red is more than coincidental. Australian aborigines, usingred for body decoration, travel hundreds of miles to fetch red


colouring from ochre pits believed to be blood-stained scenesof death of their ancestors. In these examples the convenienceargument cannot be countenanced as great effort was involvedin the procurement.

The colour triad, red, black and white, recognized by theanthropologist74 as tending to occur in all body decoration,can also be found in linguistics,75 archaeology and folkstories.76 These colours are or were worn by brides ineastern Europe and are often seen at Japanese weddingsthrough the bride’s red and white and the groom’s black andwhite. The importance in folklore of the colours black,white and red extend to objects of those colours. For exam-ple, there are many examples where the use of coal, iron,silver (white metal), salt or rowan is specified. Coal is a gifttradition in Scotland at New Year. Iron, made black throughfire, is a protective material, for example, the horseshoe seennailed to many doors throughout Europe. Salt is a powerfulpreservative (therefore seen as magic) and a traditional giftleft for the new occupiers of a house. Silver featured incures, and the red berries of the rowan were used to safe-guard cattle from sickness. The extension of the triad carriesas far as human hair colouration, dark (generally lucky), fair(less lucky), and red (bad luck).

The colour of animals in folklore can also be specific.Beliefs about black cats seem to be worldwide, there aremany legends of black dogs in Britain, where the suddenappearance of a white horse can be put to one’s advantage.The milk of a red cow was held to be particularly auspiciousin northern Europe. The choice of human and animal col-ouration is restricted to those resulting from melanin-basedpigments, but the choice of flower colour is not. Neverthe-less in Britain white flowers are “funeral flowers” and mustnot be brought indoors. That red and white flowers must notbe given together to hospital patients is one of the mostcommonly reported beliefs today—the result will be death.There are no particular beliefs associated with flowers ofother colours. Foods can also be a range of colours, yet saltas well as black food are features of Scottish folklore andred foods are used in happy occasions in the Far East.Specifically coloured animals and artifacts, it seems, areused to reinforce belief about the colour itself.

The second method depends upon a practical use of thecolorant. This includes saffron and turmeric used in Hinduand Moslem marriage and funeral ceremonies. According toa seventh century Chinese traveler in India red and yellowtextile colours were regarded as auspicious colours which“repel demons”.77 In twelfth century Kashmir washermenused saffron, prized as a yellow-orange dye, to perfume andprotect clothing from insect attack.72 Later references citethe use of pounded turmeric,78 sandal wood and red lead inthe disinfection of grave sites.79

Many examples of adoption of colour into folklore byassociation are detailed above. These range from the histor-ical associations of green and Ireland and Queen Anne’sgreen bags, to red from the blood of the bride’s purity.Examples of the fourth method of colour choice, availabil-ity, are provided by the pre-wedding dressing up of thebride, and the use of achromatics as mourning colours.

In healing it has long been a principle that ‘like cures like’.Red and yellow have been cited as examples. The folklore useof green in cures is based, as is medicine today, on natural freshgreens and the greens of mould. But, placebos excepting,unlike modern medicine, some may have been based on coloursubstitutes for natural greens. Hence, for green there are twothemes to the principle, that of “curing of human and animallife with vegetable life,” and “healing using inorganic insteadof organic green materials.”

There are many origins for the widespread belief thatgreen is an unlucky colour. However, all explanations arerelevant to the population involved. To account for this wecan postulate a Darwinian-type principle of behavior. Thatis, “to survive within a community a belief must haverelevance to that community.” Or, more simply, “as mythspersist they get updated according to their relevance to thecommunity.” This might be called a Principle of Adaptationof Ideas, as opposed to a Principle of Adaptation of PhysicalResources. The latter, originally simply the Principle ofAdaptation, was proposed by Crawley to explain, for exam-ple, the near universality of mourning colours.72

It seems central to the nature of human beings that werequire life to contain certain elements. Alongside statutoryregulations for wider government we require more localizedrules within our immediate community, within our familyand within ourselves. These control our moral behavior aswell as local ceremonial behavior. Involved are codes ofbehavior linking members of social groups. These includethe needs, for example, to celebrate gods, rites of passageand seasons of the year. All involve the use of colour andappearance in some way. Whoever we are it seems we needto be able to explain the world around us, it is the powerfuluse of colour that reinforces our explanation. Colour is usedto make events immediately more imaginable and it can alsobe immediately recognizable to another member of the tribethat you are doing the correct things appropriate to theoccasion—whether this is in life or in death. Use of colourwords in language obeys the Principle of Singularity, and acolour can ‘mean’ exactly what we want it to mean.

As to the biological mechanism permitting these manyand contrasting uses of colour, as van Allesch pointed out,it is “a complex of qualities of which certain ones becomemore or less pronounced according to a perceiver’s experi-ence and attitude.”80 That is, it depends on the fact thatcolour is a perception, not the property of an object.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks are due to Dr Venetia Newall, Professor JohnWiddowson, Dr Juliette Wood, Dr Gillian Bennett, RoyVickery and members of the Folklore Society committee fortheir encouragement and tutelage. Also, to the archivists andlibrarians of the institutions raided and to all contributors tothis study. For his valuable suggestions my thanks are dueto Dr Mike Pointer.

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Colour in folklore and tradition—The principles

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