Uncategorized

Reddish Black

The Natural Color System is a color system based on the four unique hues or psychological primary colors red, yellow, green, and blue. The NCS is based on the opponent process theory of vision. The color defined as red in the Munsell color system Munsell 5R is shown at right. The Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three color dimensions: In order for all the colors to be spaced uniformly, it was found necessary to use a color wheel with five primary colors—red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

The Munsell colors displayed are only approximate as they have been adjusted to fit into the sRGB gamut. The color defined as red in Pantone is displayed at right. The color defined as red in Crayola crayons is displayed at right. Scarlet is a bright red with a slightly orange tinge. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, scarlet and other bright shades of red are the colors most associated with courage, force, passion, heat, and joy. Imperial red is a representation of the red color of the Imperial Standard of Napoleon I. The first recorded use of imperial red as a color name in English was in The name Indian red derives from the red laterite soil found in India, which is composed of naturally occurring iron oxides.

The first recorded use of "Indian red" as a color term in English was in The color carmine is a saturated red. Ruby is a color that is a representation of the color of the cut and polished ruby gemstone. Crimson is a strong, bright, deep red color combined with some blue or violet , resulting in a small degree of purple. The color rusty red is displayed at right. Rusty red is a color formulated by Crayola in as one of the colors in its Silver Swirls specialty box of metallic colors.

Fire engine red is an intense, bright red commonly used on emergency vehicles ; mostly on fire engines , other associated fire service vehicles, and ambulances. Cardinal red , also called cardinal , is a vivid red, which gets its name from the cassocks worn by cardinals. The family of birds takes its name from the color. Chili red is the color of red chili peppers.

Shades of brown - Wikipedia

It is the shade of red used in the flags of Chile and South Africa. Another name for this color is carnelian. Displayed at right is the color madder. It is named for a dye produced from plants of the genus Rubia. The color redwood is a representation of color of the wood of the redwood tree Sequoia sempervirens.

The first recorded use of redwood as a color name in English was in OU crimson , along with cream , are the official colors for the University of Oklahoma , and its athletic teams, the Oklahoma Sooners. In the fall of , May Overstreet was asked to chair a committee to select the colors of the university. The committee decided the colors should be crimson and cream and an elaborate display of the colors was draped above a platform before the student body.

OU crimson is also an official color for the National Weather Center. Chocolate cosmos , or red cosmos is the color of Cosmos atrosanguineus species. The color is described as dark red, deep crimson , deeper burgundy , deep red chocolate, as dark hazelnut and velvety maroon. This is one of the colors on one of the milk paint color lists, paint colors formulated to reproduce the colors historically used on the American frontier and made, like those paints were, with milk. This color is mixed with various amounts of white paint to create any desired shade of the color barn red.

Turkey red is a color that was widely used to dye cotton in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was made using the root of the Rubia plant, through a long and laborious process. It originated in India or Turkey, and was brought to Europe in the s.

References

In France it was known as rouge d'Andrinople. The color cinnabar derives from the mineral of the same name. It is a slightly orange shade of red, with variations ranging from bright scarlet to brick. The color of blood ranges from crimson to a dark brown-red and may have a slightly orange hue. In the RGB color spectrum, it often consists only of the color red, with no green or blue component; in the CYMK color model blood red has no cyan, and consists only of magenta and yellow with a small amount of black.

It is frequently darker than both maroon and dark red. If the visible spectrum is wrapped to form a color wheel, red appears midway between orange and magenta:. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For a broader coverage of this topic, see Red. Retrieved 2 October Retrieved on 16 September The Greeks began using red lead as a pigment. In Ancient Rome , Tyrian purple was the color of the Emperor, but red had an important religious symbolism. Romans wore togas with red stripes on holidays, and the bride at a wedding wore a red shawl, called a flammeum. Red was also the color associated with army; Roman soldiers wore red tunics, and officers wore a cloak called a paludamentum which, depending upon the quality of the dye, could be crimson, scarlet or purple.

In Roman mythology red is associated with the god of war, Mars. A Roman general receiving a triumph had his entire body painted red in honor of his achievement. The Romans liked bright colors, and many Roman villas were decorated with vivid red murals. The pigment used for many of the murals was called vermilion , and it came from the mineral cinnabar , a common ore of mercury. It was one of the finest reds of ancient times — the paintings have retained their brightness for more than twenty centuries. Working in the mines was extremely dangerous, since mercury is highly toxic; the miners were slaves or prisoners, and being sent to the cinnabar mines was a virtual death sentence.

Etruscan dancers in the Tomb of the Triclinium BC. It was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and preserved. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, red was adopted as a color of majesty and authority by the Byzantine Empire , the princes of Europe, and the Roman Catholic Church. It also played an important part in the rituals of the Catholic Church — it symbolized the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs — and it associated the power of the kings with the sacred rituals of the Church.

Red was the color of the banner of the Byzantine emperors. In Western Europe, Emperor Charlemagne painted his palace red as a very visible symbol of his authority, and wore red shoes at his coronation. When Abbe Suger rebuilt Saint Denis Basilica outside Paris in the early 12th century, he added stained glass windows colored blue cobalt glass and red glass tinted with copper.

Together they flooded the basilica with a mystical light. Soon stained glass windows were being added to cathedrals all across France, England and Germany. In medieval painting red was used to attract attention to the most important figures; both Christ and the Virgin Mary were commonly painted wearing red mantles. Red clothing was a sign of status and wealth. It was worn not only by cardinals and princes, but also by merchants, artisans and townspeople, particularly on holidays or special occasions. Red dye for the clothing of ordinary people was made from the roots of the rubia tinctorum , the madder plant.

This color leaned toward brick-red, and faded easily in the sun or during washing. The wealthy and aristocrats wore scarlet clothing dyed with kermes , or carmine , made from the carminic acid in tiny female scale insects , which lived on the leaves of oak trees in Eastern Europe and around the Mediterranean. The insects were gathered, dried, crushed, and boiled with different ingredients in a long and complicated process, which produced a brilliant scarlet. Brazilin was another popular red dye in the Middle Ages.

It came from the sapanwood tree, which grew in India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. A similar tree, brazilwood , grew on the coast of South America. The red wood was ground into sawdust and mixed with an alkaline solution to make dye and pigment. It became one of the most profitable exports from the New World , and gave its name to the nation of Brazil.


  • .
  • Surrounded [Running to Love 5] (Siren Publishing Menage and More).
  • Gay Lovers Lane;
  • Bilanzierung von Finanzinstrumenten nach HGB und IFRS (German Edition)!
  • It's "Wine", Not Dark Red - Here Are The Correct Names Of All Color Shades.

Interior of a Byzantine church, the Cathedral of Monreale in Sicily , with a mosaic portrait of Christ dressed in red 12th century. The Annunciation scene in stained glass, from the Saint Denis Basilica early 12th century. Abbe Suger himself, the builder of the church, is pictured at the feet of the Virgin Mary , at right. She wears red with a green cloak. King Richard II of England s dressed in red.


  • He Loves U Not!
  • Horrors of the Dancing Gods;
  • Here’s what’s going on with the different colors:.
  • Dark red / #8b0000 hex color.
  • Covetous or Contented (Radical Christianity Book 5)?

Pope Innocent IV —10 dressed in red, the symbol of the blood of Christ. Red has been an important color in Chinese culture, religion, industry, fashion and court ritual since ancient times. Silk was woven and dyed as early as the Han Dynasty 25— BC. China had a monopoly on the manufacture of silk until the 6th century AD, when it was introduced into the Byzantine Empire. In the 12th century, it was introduced into Europe.

At the time of the Han Dynasty, Chinese red was a light red, but during the Tang dynasty new dyes and pigments were discovered. The Chinese used several different plants to make red dyes, including the flowers of the safflour Carthamus tinctorius , the thorns and stems of a variety of sorghum plant called Kao-liang, and the wood of the sappanwood tree.

For pigments, they used cinnabar , which produced the famous vermillion or "Chinese red" of Chinese lacquerware. Red played an important role in Chinese philosophy. It was believed that the world was composed of five elements: Red was associated with fire. Each Emperor chose the color that his fortune-tellers believed would bring the most prosperity and good fortune to his reign.

Ford Dark Cherry Pearl, color of the week #3

During the Zhou, Han, Jin, Song and Ming Dynasties, red was considered a noble color, and it was featured in all court ceremonies, from coronations to sacrificial offerings, and weddings. Red was also a badge of rank. During the Song dynasty — , officials of the top three ranks wore purple clothes; those of the fourth and fifth wore bright red; those of the sixth and seventh wore green; and the eighth and ninth wore blue. Red was the color worn by the royal guards of honor, and the color of the carriages of the imperial family.

When the imperial family traveled, their servants and accompanying officials carried red and purple umbrellas. Of an official who had talent and ambition, it was said "he is so red he becomes purple. Red was also featured in Chinese Imperial architecture. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, gates of palaces were usually painted red, and nobles often painted their entire mansion red. One of the most famous works of Chinese literature, A Dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin —63 , was about the lives of noble women who passed their lives out of public sight within the walls of such mansions.

In later dynasties red was reserved for the walls of temples and imperial residences. When the Manchu rulers of the Qing Dynasty conquered the Ming and took over the Forbidden City and Imperial Palace in Beijing, all the walls, gates, beams and pillars were painted in red and gold. Red is not often used in traditional Chinese paintings, which are usually black ink on white paper with a little green sometimes added for trees or plants; but the round or square seals which contain the name of the artist are traditionally red.

Walls, columns, windows and gates of palaces and temples were traditionally painted red. A red lacquerware tray with engraved gold foil decoration 12—13th century , from the Song dynasty. The red coach of the Ming dynasty 's Xuande Emperor — , pulled by elephants. Dancer of the Tang dynasty , from the Astana Tombs.

In Renaissance painting, red was used to draw the attention of the viewer; it was often used as the color of the cloak or costume of Christ , the Virgin Mary , or another central figure. In Venice , Titian was the master of fine reds, particularly vermilion ; he used many layers of pigment mixed with a semi-transparent glaze, which let the light pass through, to create a more luminous color. During the Renaissance trade routes were opened to the New World, to Asia and the Middle East, and new varieties of red pigment and dye were imported into Europe, usually through Venice , Genoa or Seville , and Marseille.

Venice was the major depot importing and manufacturing pigments for artists and dyers from the end of the 15th century; the catalog of a Venetian Vendecolori , or pigment seller, from included vermilion and kermes. There were guilds of dyers who specialized in red in Venice and other large Europeans cities. The Rubia plant was used to make the most common dye; it produced an orange-red or brick red color used to dye the clothes of merchants and artisans.

For the wealthy, the dye used was kermes, made from a tiny scale insect which fed on the branches and leaves of the oak tree. For those with even more money there was Polish Cochineal ; also known as Kermes vermilio or "Blood of Saint John", which was made from a related insect, the Margodes polonicus. It made a more vivid red than ordinary Kermes.

The finest and most expensive variety of red made from insects was the "Kermes" of Armenia Armenian cochineal , also known as Persian kirmiz , made by collecting and crushing Porphyophora hamelii , an insect which lived on the roots and stems of certain grasses. The pigment and dye merchants of Venice imported and sold all of these products and also manufactured their own color, called Venetian red , which was considered the most expensive and finest red in Europe.

Its secret ingredient was arsenic , which brightened the color. But early in the 16th century, a brilliant new red appeared in Europe. The cochineal in Mexico was closely related to the Kermes varieties of Europe, but unlike European Kermes, it could be harvested several times a year, and it was ten times stronger than the Kermes of Poland. It worked particularly well on silk, satin and other luxury textiles. In Cortes sent the first shipment to Spain.

Soon cochineal began to arrive in European ports aboard convoys of Spanish galleons. At first the guilds of dyers in Venice and other cities banned cochineal to protect their local products, but the superior quality of cochineal dye made it impossible to resist. By the beginning of the 17th century it was the preferred luxury red for the clothing of cardinals, bankers, courtesans and aristocrats. The painters of the early Renaissance used two traditional lake pigments, made from mixing dye with either chalk or alum , kermes lake, made from kermes insects, and madder lake , made from the rubia tinctorum plant.

With the arrival of cochineal, they had a third, carmine , which made a very fine crimson, though it had a tendency to change color if not used carefully. Later it was used by Thomas Gainsborough , Seurat and J.

Shades of brown

The Assumption , by Titian — The figures of God, the Virgin Mary and two apostles are highlighted by their vermilion red costumes. The young Queen Elizabeth I here in about liked to wear bright reds, before she adopted the more sober image of the "Virgin Queen". Her satin gown was probably dyed with kermes. In Renaissance Flanders , people of all social classes wore red at celebrations. The dye came from the root of the madder plant, which tended toward orange. Woman with a wine glass , by Johannes Vermeer — Vermeer used different shades and tints of vermilion to paint the red skirt, then glazed it with madder lake to make a more luminous color.

Dyed feather headdress from the Aztec people of Mexico and Central America. For red they used cochineal , a brilliant scarlet dye made from insects. A native of Central America collecting cochineal insects from a cactus to make red dye From the 16th until the 19th century, it was a highly profitable export from Spanish Mexico to Europe. Rembrandt used carmine lake, made of cochineal , to paint the skirt of the bride in the painting known as The Jewish bride — During the French Revolution , the Jacobins and other more radical parties adopted the red flag; it was taken from red flags hoisted by the French government to declare a state of siege or emergency.

Many of them wore a red Phrygian cap , or liberty cap, modeled after the caps worn by freed slaves in Ancient Rome. During the height of the Reign of Terror , Women wearing red caps gathered around the guillotine to celebrate each execution. They were called the "Furies of the guillotine".

The guillotines used during the Reign of Terror in and were painted red, or made of red wood. During the Reign of Terror a statue of a woman titled liberty, painted red, was placed in the square in front of the guillotine. After the end of the Reign of Terror, France went back to the blue, white and red tricolor, whose red was taken from the red and blue colors of the city of Paris, and was the traditional color of Saint Denis , the Christian martyr and patron saint of Paris. In the midth century, red became the color of a new political and social movement, socialism. It became the most common banner of the worker's movement, of the French Revolution of , of the Paris Commune in , and of socialist parties across Europe.

As the Industrial Revolution spread across Europe, chemists and manufacturers sought new red dyes that could be used for large-scale manufacture of textiles. One popular color imported into Europe from Turkey and India in the 18th and early 19th century was Turkey red , known in France as rouge d'Adrinople. Beginning in the s, this bright red color was used to dye or print cotton textiles in England, the Netherlands and France. Turkey red used madder as the colorant, but the process was longer and more complicated, involving multiple soaking of the fabrics in lye, olive oil, sheep's dung, and other ingredients.

The fabric was more expensive but resulted in a fine bright and lasting red, similar to carmine , perfectly suited to cotton. In 19th-century America, it was widely used in making the traditional patchwork quilt. In , the French chemist Pierre-Jean Robiquet discovered the organic compound alizarin , the powerful coloring ingredient of the madder root, the most popular red dye of the time. In , German chemists Carl Graebe and Liebermann were able to synthesize alizarin, and to produce it from coal tar.


  • It’s “Wine”, Not Dark Red – Here Are The Correct Names Of All Color Shades.
  • My Ultimate Tropical Fish Guide.
  • The Top 50 Most Influential Gay Movies Of All Time.
  • Shades of red?
  • Period blood color: brown, black, or dark — does it matter?!

The synthetic red was cheaper and more lasting than the natural dye, and the plantation of madder in Europe and import of cochineal from Latin America soon almost completely ceased. The 19th century also saw the use of red in art to create specific emotions, not just to imitate nature. These studies were avidly followed by artists such as Vincent van Gogh. The hall is blood red and pale yellow, with a green billiard table in the center, and four lamps of lemon yellow, with rays of orange and green.

Everywhere it is a battle and antithesis of the most different reds and greens. A Phrygian cap , or liberty cap, was worn by the supporters of the French Revolution of During the Reign of Terror during the later French Revolution, the "Furies of the Guillotine" cheered on each execution. The Night Cafe , , by Vincent van Gogh , used red and green to express what Van Gogh called "the terrible human passions. In the 20th century, red was the color of Revolution; it was the color of the Bolshevik Revolution in and of the Chinese Revolution of , and later of the Cultural Revolution.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the German chemical industry invented two new synthetic red pigments: The French painter Henri Matisse — was one of the first prominent painters to use the new cadmium red. He even tried, without success, to persuade the older and more traditional Renoir , his neighbor in the south of France, to switch from vermilion to cadmium red. Matisse was also one of the first 20th-century artists to make color the central element of the painting, chosen to evoke emotions.

He wrote, "My choice of colors is not based on scientific theory; it is based on observation, upon feelings, upon the real nature of each experience I just try to find a color which corresponds to my feelings. Later in the century, the American artist Mark Rothko —70 also used red, in even simpler form, in blocks of dark, somber color on large canvases, to inspire deep emotions.

Rothko observed that color was "only an instrument;" his interest was "in expressing human emotions tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. Rothko also began using the new synthetic pigments, but not always with happy results. In he donated to Harvard University a series of large murals of the Passion of Christ whose predominant colors were dark pink and deep crimson. He mixed mostly traditional colors to make the pink and crimson; synthetic ultramarine, cerulean blue, and titanium white, but he also used two new organic reds, Naphtol and Lithol.

The Naphtol did well, but the Lithol slowly changed color when exposed to light. Within five years the deep pinks and reds had begun to turn light blue, and by the paintings were ruined and had to be taken down. Bathing of a Red Horse , by the Russian symbolist painter Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin , used a bright red horse to surprise and shock viewers.

It provoked a furious discussion among Russian critics. Four Darks in Red by Mark Rothko The somber dark reds were chosen to inspire deep human emotions. Surveys show that red is the color most associated with courage. The banner of the Christian soldiers in the First Crusade was a red cross on a white field, the St. According to Christian tradition, Saint George was a Roman soldier who was a member of the guards of the Emperor Diocletian , who refused to renounce his Christian faith and was martyred.

In , Mary, Queen of Scots , accused of treason against Queen Elizabeth I , wore a red shirt at her execution, to proclaim that she was an innocent martyr. It was widely reported in the British press as an example of courage in the face of overwhelming odds and became a British military legend. In the 19th-century novel The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane , a story about the American Civil War , the red badge was the blood from a wound, by which a soldier could prove his courage. Saint Julia wears red, the traditional color of Christian martyrs. Roman Catholic Popes wear red as the symbol of the blood of Christ.

Saint George and the Dragon , by Paolo Uccello — He wears the Saint George's Cross as a cape, which was also the banner of Milan. The name was given by the British press as a symbol of courage against the odds. The red poppy flower is worn on Remembrance Day in Commonwealth countries to honor soldiers who died in the First World War. Red is the color most commonly associated with love, followed at a great distance by pink.

Navigation menu

Both the Greeks and the Hebrews considered red a symbol of love as well as sacrifice. The Roman de la Rose , the Romance of the Rose, a thirteenth-century French poem, was one of the most popular works of literature of the Middle Ages. It was the allegorical search by the author for a red rose in an enclosed garden, symbolizing the woman he loved, and was a description of love in all of its aspects.

Saint Valentine , a Roman Catholic Bishop or priest who was martyred in about AD, seems to have had no known connection with romantic love, but the day of his martyrdom on the Roman Catholic calendar, Saint Valentine's Day February 14 , became, in the 14th century, an occasion for lovers to send messages to each other. In recent years the celebration of Saint Valentine' s day has spread beyond Christian countries to Japan and China and other parts of the world.

In Saudi Arabia , in and , religious police banned the sale of all Valentine's Day items, telling shop workers to remove any red items, as the day is considered a Christian holiday. The Codex Manesse , a 14th-century collection of love songs. Red roses were symbol of courtly love. Fifteenth-century Illustration from the Roman de la Rose , a thirteenth-century French poem about a search for a red rose symbolizing the poet's love.

A valentine from The tradition of sending messages of love on February 14, Valentine's Day , dates back to the 14th century. Red is the color most commonly associated with joy and well being. A red carpet is often used to welcome distinguished guests. Red is also the traditional color of seats in opera houses and theaters. Scarlet academic gowns are worn by new Doctors of Philosophy at degree ceremonies at Oxford University and other schools. In China, it is considered the color of good fortune and prosperity, and it is the color traditionally worn by brides.

In Christian countries, it is the color traditionally worn at Christmas by Santa Claus , because in the 4th century the historic Saint Nicholas was the Greek Christian Bishop of Myra , in modern-day Turkey, and bishops then dressed in red. Scarlet academic gowns are worn by new Doctors of Philosophy at a degree ceremony at Oxford University. In China, red is the color of happiness and celebration. The Lantern Festival in Shanghai.

Santa Claus traditionally wears red, because the original Saint Nicholas was a bishop of the Greek Christian church in the 4th century. While red is the color most associated with love, it also the color most frequently associated with hatred, anger, aggression and war. People who are angry are said to " see red. In ancient Rome , red was the color of Mars , the god of war —the planet Mars was named for him because of its red color. Red is the traditional color of warning and danger. In the Middle Ages, a red flag announced that the defenders of a town or castle would fight to defend it, and a red flag hoisted by a warship meant they would show no mercy to their enemy.

Several studies have indicated that red carries the strongest reaction of all the colors, with the level of reaction decreasing gradually with the colors orange, yellow, and white, respectively. In fact, teachers at a primary school in the UK have been told not to mark children's work in red ink because it encourages a "negative approach". Red is the international color of stop signs and stop lights on highways and intersections.

It was standardized as the international color at the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals of It was chosen partly because red is the brightest color in daytime next to orange , though it is less visible at twilight, when green is the most visible color. Red also stands out more clearly against a cool natural backdrop of blue sky, green trees or gray buildings. But it was mostly chosen as the color for stoplights and stop signs because of its universal association with danger and warning.

The standard international stop sign, following the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals of Red is the color of a severe terrorist threat level in the United States, under the Homeland Security Advisory System. Red is the color of a UK Railway "Home" signal; the white stripe helps recognition against dark backgrounds. Red is the color that most attracts attention. Surveys show it is the color most frequently associated with visibility, proximity, and extroverts.

Red is used in modern fashion much as it was used in Medieval painting; to attract the eyes of the viewer to the person who is supposed to be the center of attention. People wearing red seem to be closer than those dressed in other colors, even if they are actually the same distance away.

It is also commonly worn by lifeguards and others whose job requires them to be easily found. Because red attracts attention, it is frequently used in advertising, though studies show that people are less likely to read something printed in red because they know it is advertising, and because it is more difficult visually to read than black and white text. Red by a large margin is the color most commonly associated with seduction, sexuality, eroticism and immorality, possibly because of its close connection with passion and with danger.

Red was long seen as having a dark side, particularly in Christian theology. It was associated with sexual passion, anger, sin, and the devil. Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of all the abominations of the earth: And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. In , Irving Berlin wrote a song, At the Devil's Ball , and the devil in red appeared more often in cartoons and movies than in religious art.

In 17th-century New England, red was associated with adultery. In the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne , The Scarlet Letter , set in a Puritan New England community, a woman is punished for adultery with ostracism, her sin represented by a red letter 'A' sewn onto her clothes. Red is still commonly associated with prostitution. Prostitutes in many cities were required to wear red to announce their profession, and houses of prostitution displayed a red light. Beginning in the early 20th century, houses of prostitution were allowed only in certain specified neighborhoods, which became known as red-light districts.

Large red-light districts are found today in Bangkok and Amsterdam. In Roman Catholicism , red represents wrath, one of the seven deadly sins. In both Christian and Hebrew tradition, red is also sometimes associated with murder or guilt, with "having blood on one's hands", or "being caught red-handed. The Whore of Babylon , depicted in a 14th-century French illuminated manuscript. The woman appears attractive, but is wearing red under her blue garment. The red-light district in Amsterdam Red lipstick has been worn by women as a cosmetic since ancient times.

In China, red simplified Chinese: It carries a largely positive connotation, being associated with courage, loyalty, honor, success, fortune, fertility, happiness, passion, and summer. Special red packets simplified Chinese: On the more negative side, obituaries are traditionally written in red ink, and to write someone's name in red signals either cutting them out of one's life, or that they have died.

In Japan, red is a traditional color for a heroic figure. In Central Africa, Ndembu warriors rub themselves with red paint during celebrations. Since their culture sees the color as a symbol of life and health, sick people are also painted with it. Like most Central African cultures, the Ndembu see red as ambivalent, better than black but not as good as white.

The early Ottoman Turks led by the first Ottoman Sultan, Osman I , carried red banners symbolizing sovereignty, Ghazis and Sufism , until, according to legend, he saw a new red flag in his dream inlaid with a crescent. In many Asian countries, red is the traditional color for a wedding dress today, symbolizing joy and good fortune. The bride at a traditional Chinese wedding dresses in red, the color of happiness and good fortune.

A red wedding kimono, or uchikake , from Japan. Brides in Japan can wear either a white kimono or bright colors. In India and Pakistan, brides traditionally have their hands and feet decorated with red henna. A Shinto torii at Itsukushima , Japan. Buddhist monks in Tibet. In Hinduism , red is associated with Lakshmi , the goddess of wealth and embodiment of beauty. Red flags in a celebration of Muharram in Iran. The red military uniform was adopted by the English Parliament's New Model Army in , and was still worn as a dress uniform by the British Army until the outbreak of the First World War in August Ordinary soldiers wore red coats dyed with madder , while officers wore scarlet coats dyed with the more expensive cochineal.

In the modern British army, scarlet is still worn by the Foot Guards , the Life Guards , and by some regimental bands or drummers for ceremonial purposes. Officers and NCOs of those regiments which previously wore red retain scarlet as the color of their "mess" or formal evening jackets. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment has a scarlet tunic in its winter dress. Scarlet is worn for some full dress, military band or mess uniforms in the modern armies of a number of the countries that made up the former British Empire. The musicians of the United States Marine Corps Band wear red, following an 18th-century military tradition that the uniforms of band members are the reverse of the uniforms of the other soldiers in their unit.

Black, Brown, Bright Red, and More: What Does Each Period Blood Color Mean?

Since the US Marine uniform is blue with red facings, the band wears the reverse. The uniform was adapted from the tunic of the British Army. Cadets at the Royal Military College of Canada also wear red dress uniforms. The Brazilian Marine Corps wears a red dress uniform. The scarlet uniform of the National Guards Unit of Bulgaria.

Officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Soldiers of the Rajput Regiment of the Indian Army. The first known team sport to feature red uniforms was chariot racing during the late Roman Empire. The earliest races were between two chariots, one driver wearing red, the other white. Later, the number of teams was increased to four, including drivers in light green and sky blue. Twenty-five races were run in a day, with a total of one hundred chariots participating.

related stories

Today many sports teams throughout the world feature red on their uniforms. Along with blue , red is the most commonly used non-white color in sports. Numerous national sports teams wear red, often through association with their national flags. A few of these teams feature the color as part of their nickname such as Spain with their association football soccer national team nicknamed La Furia Roja or "The Red Fury" and Belgium whose football team bears the nickname Rode Duivels or "Red Devils".

In club association football soccer , red is a commonly used color throughout the world. A number of teams' nicknames feature the color. A red penalty card is issued to a player who commits a serious infraction: In rugby union , Ireland's Munster rugby , New Zealand's Canterbury provincial team and the Crusaders Super 14 rugby side wear red as a major color in their playing strips. Rosso Corsa is the red international motor racing color of cars entered by teams from Italy. Since the s Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo , Maserati , Lancia , and later Ferrari and Abarth have been painted with a color known as rosso corsa "racing red".

National colors were mostly replaced in Formula One by commercial sponsor liveries in , but unlike most other teams, Ferrari always kept the traditional red, although the shade of the color varies. The color is commonly used for professional sports teams in Canada and the United States with eleven Major League Baseball teams, eleven National Hockey League teams, seven National Football League teams and eleven National Basketball Association teams prominently featuring some shade of the color. During the s when red was strongly associated with communism in the United States, the modern Cincinnati Reds team was known as the "Redlegs" and the term was used on baseball cards.

After the red scare faded, the team was known as the "Reds" again. In boxing , red is often the color used on a fighter's gloves. George Foreman wore the same red trunks he used during his loss to Muhammad Ali when he defeated Michael Moorer 20 years later to regain the title he lost. In martial arts, a red belt shows a high degree of proficiency, second only, in some schools, to the black belt. An Alfa Romeo Grand Prix car in , painted Rosso Corsa , "racing red" , the traditional racing color of Italy from the s until the late s. Red is one of the most common colors used on national flags.

The use of red has similar connotations from country to country: Red is the color of the flags of several countries that once belonged to the British Empire. The British flag bears the colors red, white and blue; it includes the cross of Saint George , patron saint of England, and the saltire of Saint Patrick , patron saint of Ireland, both of which are red on white.

Red flags are also used to symbolize storms, bad water conditions, and many other dangers. Navy flags are often red and yellow. Red is prominently featured in the flag of the United States Marine Corps. The red on the flag of Nepal represents the floral emblem of the country, the rhododendron. Red, blue, and white are also the Pan-Slavic colors adopted by the Slavic solidarity movement of the late nineteenth century. Initially these were the colors of the Russian flag; as the Slavic movement grew, they were adopted by other Slavic peoples including Slovaks , Slovenes , and Serbs.

In Georgia adopted a new white flag , which consists of four small and one big red cross in the middle touching all four sides. Red, white, and black were the colors of the German Empire from to , and as such they came to be associated with German nationalism. In the s they were adopted as the colors of the Nazi flag. In Mein Kampf , Hitler explained that they were "revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past. Red, white, green and black are the colors of Pan-Arabism and are used by many Arab countries.

Red, gold, green, and black are the colors of Pan-Africanism. The Pan-African colors are borrowed from the flag of Ethiopia , one of the oldest independent African countries. The flags of Japan and Bangladesh both have a red circle in the middle of different colored backgrounds. The flag of the Philippines has a red trapezoid on the bottom signifying blood, courage, and valor also, if the flag is inverted so that the red trapezoid is on top and the blue at the bottom, it indicates a state of war. The flag of Singapore has a red rectangle on the top.

The field of the flag of Portugal is green and red. The Ottoman Empire adopted several different red flags during the six centuries of its rule, with the successor Republic of Turkey continuing the Ottoman Flag. The flag of the Byzantine Empire from to its fall in The St George's cross was the banner of the First Crusade , then, beginning in the 13th century, the flag of England.

It is the red color along with that of the Cross of Saint Patrick in the flag of the United Kingdom, and, by adoption, of the red in the flag of the United States. This is the Grand Union Flag , the first U. It dates back to the banner of Medieval Georgia in the 5th century. The maple leaf flag of Canada, adopted in The red color comes from the Saint George's Cross of England.

The national flag of Cambodia in its present form was originally adopted in and readopted in , after the Constituent Assembly election in and restoration of the monarchy. Red color in the flag represents bravery. In the Middle Ages, ships in combat hoisted a long red streamer, called the Baucans, to signify a fight to the death. A besieged castle or city would raise a red flag to tell the attackers that they would not surrender. The red flag appeared as a political symbol during the French Revolution , after the fall of Bastille.

A law adopted by the new government on October 20, authorized the Garde Nationale to raise the red flag in the event of a riot, to signal that the Garde would imminently intervene. During a demonstration on the Champs de Mars on July 17, , the Garde Nationale fired on the crowd, killed up to fifty people. The government was denounced by the more radical revolutionaries.

In the words of his famous hymn, the Marseillaise , Rouget de Lisle wrote: Beginning in , the most radical revolutionaries adopted the red flag themselves, to symbolize the blood of those killed in the demonstrations, and to call for the repression of those they considered counter-revolutionary. During the French Revolution, many in the Paris crowds also wore a red phrygian cap , a symbol of liberty, modeled after the caps worn in ancient Rome by freed slaves; but the colors of the Revolution finally became blue, white and red.

The red in the French flag was taken from the emblem of the city of Paris, where it represented the city's patron saint, Saint Denis. Karl Marx published the Communist Manifesto in February , with little attention. However, a few days later the French Revolution of broke out, which replaced the monarchy of Louis Philippe with the Second French Republic.

In June , Paris workers, disenchanted with the new government, built barricades and raised red flags. The new government called in the French Army to put down the uprising, the first of many such confrontations between the army and the new worker's movements in Europe. Red was also the color of the movement to unify Italy, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. His followers were known as the camicie rosse , or redshirts during the fight for Italian Risorgimento in In , following the stunning defeat of the French Army by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War , French workers and socialist revolutionaries seized Paris and created the Paris Commune.

The Commune lasted for two months before it was crushed by the French Army, with much bloodshed. The original red banners of the Commune became icons of the socialist revolution; in members of the French Communist Party came to Moscow and presented the new Soviet government with one of the original Commune banners; it was placed and is still in place in the tomb of Vladimir Lenin, next to his open coffin.

With the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution of , the red flag, with a hammer to symbolize the workers and sickle to symbolize peasants, became the official flag of Russia, and, in , of the Soviet Union. It remained so until the breakup of the Soviet Union in After the Communist Party of China took power in , the flag of China became a red flag with a large star symbolizing the Communist Party, and smaller stars symbolizing workers, peasants, the urban middle class and rural middle class. The flag of the Communist Party of China became a red banner with a hammer and sickle , similar to that on the Soviet flag.