Colour In Folklore And Tradition—
The Principles
John Hutchings
6 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 their
personal appearance and environment. A large part of this
usage falls within the area of oral tradition and ritual that
have 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 of
doing the ‘right thing’. Two surveys were designed to learn
more of these very human activities. The first centered on
Britain and Ireland; the other was international. Three
major driving forces were found for the use of colour in
folklore and symbolism— economic, historical and social.
The Principle of Adaptation of Physical Resources accounts
for 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 the
spirits of the dead. The Principle of Adaptation of Ideas
accounts for regional variations in colour folklore. This
embodies 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 with
like. There are four Principles of Colour Selection in folk-
lore— by the contrast displayed, as a transfer from the
perceived or actual usefulness of the colour, by association,
and by availability. Green above all colours has especial
significance both in the UK and Ireland. In everyday lan-
guage it is the Principle of Singularity that controls use of
colour words as symbols. The biological mechanism per-
mitting these many and contrasting uses of colour depends
on the fact that colour is a perception, not the property of an
object. 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
Correspondence to: (e-mail: john.hutchings@physics.org)
© 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Volume 29, Number 1, February 2004
INTRODUCTION
Colour and appearance are essential to the well being of
most living organisms. In common with that of other animal
species, our total appearance, that is our colour, colour
patterning, design and behavioral display, have adapted to
physical, geographical, climatological and sexual environ-
ments.1 As human beings our imagination and creativity as
well as the availability of colour give us power to manipu-
late our appearance and environment. We have exploited
our colour vision so that colour now forms a highly signifi-
cant part of modern life. Colours we use in everyday life tell
stories about ourselves. For example, body decoration and
clothing betray upbringing and membership of particular
social groups. Colours used on special occasions belong to
family and tribe. Folklore is about what we do as a matter
of course, about what we believe and how we behave as we
go about our lives. Colour in folklore encompasses such
events as a European mother insisting her daughter marries
wearing a white dress. This is not a statutory requirement, it
does not carry the force of law, indeed it may happen only
once in a lifetime. It is what mother sees as essential in the
prevailing set of circumstances. There are two major moti-
vations for colour use in daily life. One broadly results from
legislation; the other is tribal or personal. The legislative
driving force is provided by regulation and includes such
colour uses as traffic lights, supermarket staff uniforms,
heraldic devices and choice of automobile colours. These do
not form part of oral tradition and hence have been omitted
from further discussion.
To step back, images comprising the total appearance of
a scene are controlled by two groups of factors: first, the
scene material physics and design working together; and
second, 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 part
of the viewer’s heritage within a specific environment play
a profound part in the creation of scene images.2
The aims of the project were twofold. The first was to
search for evidence for colour use in custom, oral tradition
57
and language. An in depth approach was adopted for Britain
and Ireland with a questionnaire approach being used to
elicit evidence from other countries. The second aim was to
examine the evidence and look for patterns of human be-
havior. The investigations were supported by the Colour
Group (Great Britain) and The Folklore Society. This article
contains a description of the surveys and an analysis of the
results.
THE SURVEYS
Contributions were invited via notices and letters to folklore
journals, newsletters and selected local press, as well as
from interested individuals living in the British Isles and
Ireland. In support of the study I searched the oral tradition
libraries 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 Scottish
Studies at the University of Edinburgh, University College
Dublin, the Welsh Folk Museum, Cardiff and the Ulster
Folk and Transport Museum, Belfast. These archives were
commenced mainly around 1960. Approximately 1200
items 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 foods
and lucky colours. Responses were patchy. From Japan 97
completed questionnaires were received, from other Asian
countries 21, Britain 29, other countries in Europe 13,
Africa 7 and the Americas 6. A logical method of analysis
was to compare Japan and Britain and include contributions
from other countries where relevant.3
Colour and appearance have various functions in oral
tradition. For example, they are used to identify the central
character, perhaps a bride, and the occasion, such as a
seasonal decoration. In traditional stories and activities
white and black may be used to portray good and evil,
sometimes red symbolizes the colour of blood or is used to
frighten. In amulets and charms, colour and appearance act
as visible and tangible declarations of belief and no doubt
act as a psychological reinforcement of purpose. In some
traditional activities, for example in Britain the decoration
of the bride before her wedding day, use of specific colours
is irrelevant; it is appearance that is important.
Fourteen colour and colour related words have varying
degrees of significance within the general area of folklore of
Britain 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 single
references to cream, khaki and orange. Also occurring were
materials possessing dominant colours such as salt (14),
soot or coal (10) and red rowan berries (4). Colours were
applied 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
58
driving force for the folkloric use of colour: economic,
historical and social. The colour green occupies a special
and complex place in the folklore of the UK and Eire; hence
there are separate sections on unlucky green and the place of
green in the folklore and tradition of Ireland. Finally, there
is a brief account of the use of colour words in language
symbolism using green as an example. In the text inverted
commas enclose quotations from survey respondents or
from the literature.
DRIVING FORCES FOR THE USE OF
COLOUR IN FOLKLORE
The Economic Driving Force
There is nothing inevitable about the way a colour is used
for a specific purpose. For example, there is no feeling
across cultures that a particular colour is the most suitable
for a bride. However, a custom widely accepted across
many international boundaries is the use of achromatic
colours black, gray and off-white for mourning. These are
colours of cheap, readily obtained, easily cleaned materials
that are available for wearing for work and for all such
occasions of respect. They provide suitable dress for indi-
viduals unable to afford to spend money on something that
would be worn rarely. This is the Principle of Adaptation of
Physical Resources—they use what is available. The diver-
gence of Chinese white and European black for mourning is
sometimes said to exhibit how these cultures are totally
different. This need not be so. Both cultures use achromatic
colours optimized in different directions, one to white the
other to black. In fact in Britain at a time of death both black
and white are traditionally used. Although the colour of
mourning is black the traditional laying out room is white
and the body is normally given a white covering. From the
middle of the nineteenth century dyes became less costly
and, for example, deep purple came into fashion in Britain
as a second-degree mourning colour.5
Note, the use of achromatics for funerals is not world-
wide. Bright colours are worn during funeral ceremonies in
Bali and Mexico. Highly colored coffins shaped according
to the occupation of the dead person are common in Ghana.
Another exception is the use of red in West Africa and its
transportation with slavery to the West Indies and southern
states of the USA. In these places red is associated with
protection 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 echoes
three principles of approach to death. These are sadness of
death, the celebration and happiness for the dead or for the
life of the deceased, and fear of the dead and protection
from the spirits of the dead.
The observations on achromatics may be extended to the
colour of the groom’s dress at the conventional ‘western’
COLOR research and application
wedding and the dark-coloured best clothes traditionally
worn by male guests.
The Historical Driving Force
Many pieces of folklore are or are said to be derived from
historical events. These are discussed under the headings of
Political, including folklore transfer by migration, and the
Supernatural. Historical aspects of unlucky green and the
place of green in Irish folklore are presented later.
Political
Although national colours are matters of legislation, their
translation into everyday use belongs to folklore. Historical
driving 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 the
introduction of red rice as a dish used to celebrate happy
occasions coincided with the introduction of the red and
white national flag in 1870. This occurred at the start of a
period of Japanese industrialism and imperialism. This ef-
fect also occurs in reverse. In Finland during World War II
Russian occupied houses were painted a particular shade of
blue. For long after the forces withdrew this colour could
not be used for marketing as it was associated with bad
memories 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. Already
mentioned is transmission by slavery. The ‘western’ white
bride’s dress was spread around the world by colonialism
and trade. The traditional bridal red, black and white (or
ecru) in Middle and Eastern Europe, can be found from
Sweden in the north to Italy and Greece in the south.
Bridal reds, by body painting or in the dress, occur in a
broad band around the world from China in the east, through
India to the Near East, and continuing through North Africa
in the west. The route taken into India may have been
through the northeast via Assam from China or through the
northwest via the Aryan Iranian Indo-Europeans. These
migrations occurred in the years following 4000 B.P. (The
use of red by an Indian bride is first mentioned in the
Rigveda, the book of Indian custom, written 4000 years
ago.) In 5000 B.P. women in Ancient Egypt and Mesopota-
mia used henna to colour their hands and feet. This was
believed to counter evil.
Belief that green is unlucky (see later) has traveled to
North America, no doubt imported by immigrants from
Britain and Ireland. Hence, it is unlucky to marry in green
in Texas,7 in the Midwest it ought not be used for racing
cars,8 and it is even bad luck to ride in any vehicle of that
colour in Arkansas.9 Folklore sometimes migrates or is
transferred, not always faithfully, between cultures. It is
reported that department stores in Tokyo showed Father
Christmas nailed to a cross on the top of a Christmas tree!10
But perhaps this is also folklore.
Volume 29, Number 1, February 2004
The Supernatural
The use of colour in worship normally takes the form of a
design such as the Christian cross. It is the design not the
colour that provides the focus of worship. However, on
some occasions it appears that colour itself is sacred. For
example, splashes of turmeric made on the wall by a mar-
ried couple in India are worshipped.11 Also in India the
mere application of a streak of vermilion on the bride’s head
can be sufficient to create a Hindu marriage.12 In Australia
specific colours have specific functions within Dreamtime
art, many being ritual and sacred in nature.
The couple must look their best on the wedding day. This
includes not only their clothes, but also the colour and
condition 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 bride
must not look too good. Anyone or any thing looking
perfect or beautiful is said to be trying to copy and hence
blaspheme God, therefore man-made beauty must be
spoiled with black (or dirt). Chimney sweeps can be hired in
Britain to bring good luck to a marriage by touching and
spoiling the appearance of the bride’s dress on her wedding
day.
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 the
evil eye, while young women and children had their eyelids
marked with lamp black. Similarly, charcoal was buried
under the threshold to guard the household from harm, and
also used as a preservative for milk.11 The colour black is
also important in Scottish New Year customs. If the first
person to enter the house on New Year’s Day is a dark
haired man carrying a lump of coal the family will have
good luck during the coming twelve months. [Conversely,
in many countries the appearance of a red-headed person
presages bad luck.]
Another aspect to this sacred nature is that specific col-
ours are apotropaic, that is, they protect. In Europe the
protective colour is red; in the Middle East it is blue.
The Social Driving Force
Healing Uses of Colour
Curing like with like is a major principle of folk medicine.
Cures for jaundice may involve an infusion of the yellow
sap of the barberry, or gin or beer containing saffron. Red
amulets help cure ailments such as fevers and rheumatism.
The use of green in cures revolves mainly around the green
of vegetation. Evergreens, particularly those bearing fruit in
winter, have long been powerful life symbols.13 Eating
grass from churchyards, lettuce, or dosing with concoctions
prepared from fresh or dried bramble arches, holly, palm,
mandrake, vervain or yarrow will cure or protect from a
number of complaints.14 Antibiotics are made from green
59
mould. In general, natural greens can be used for the cure of
specific complaints or to deflect the glances of the evil eye.
There are instances in which a green colour is used as a
substitute 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 coloured
materials have been advocated since Babylonian and Assyr-
ian times. Green stones such as green jade or nephrite were
used to assist women in childbirth, or those suffering from
kidney troubles, as well as to improve fertility in man and
beast.16 Without assuming continuity, in nineteenth-century
Ireland green and black stones gathered in a moving stream
were used in a charm for hip-joint disease.17 Other green
stones had magic properties. An example was the stone
globe of St. Molingus, which was said to have the power to
cause disease and procure victory for the MacDonalds of
Scotland.18
Rites of Passage
Mourning 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 informal
dressing of the couple. On the wedding eve in Scotland the
groom may be ‘blackened’, that is, stripped naked, covered
with soot and water, and wheeled around town in a wheel-
barrow. This is another example of the appearance of black
in Scottish folklore. In Britain as a whole the bride-to-be
may be dressed up by her work mates. Specific colours are
not important; she is dressed in whatever colours are avail-
able.19 In pre-wedding ceremonies in parts of the Hindu and
Moslem worlds colours, especially turmeric and henna, are
used to drive away evil spirits.
The dressing of the bride, groom and members of the
procession often represents a large proportion of the wed-
ding expenditure. In some cultures contrast between bride
and groom is emphasized. In others, couples marry in the
same colours. Examples are Hindu (red), Parsee (white),
and the Yoruba in Nigeria (bright colours to emphasize the
fusing of two individuals into a unity). Colour symbolism
used in the ceremony itself includes the use of red and
yellow components at Hindu weddings. The marking of the
bride with a colour includes the Hindu use of vermilion, the
Muslim henna, and the western gold ring. Specific colours
may also be used in festivities following the wedding.
The bride’s dress makes her look both beautiful and the
central figure of the ceremony. Some wear a fashion-in-
spired creation that sets her totally apart, giving her nothing
visually in common with others present. However, the pur-
pose of the once traditional black dress found in parts of
Iberia was said to make her unattractive to all but the
groom.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 colour
during the wedding ritual indicates the bride’s change of
tribe on marriage.21 In the Shetlands the bride’s white dress
60
seemed to represent a welcome into the ranks of the married
and carried with it the right to wear it at subsequent wed-
dings in the Islands.22 In some areas the bride wears her best
dress, often itself a marker of her community, with the
addition of sufficient extras to mark her as the central figure.
These extras may be, for example, a hat in Hungary or
ribbons in nineteenth century England.
It is appropriate that wedding colours are also lucky
colours, that a colour associated with an inherently happy
occasion should carry with it the hope for a good and
fruitful life ahead. The coincidence is perhaps more a matter
of coevolution than one of which came first. An example
may be the use of blue in Britain for long a symbol of true
love and faithfulness. However, the purity meaning of white
was established in Europe before its widespread use by
brides.
The ancient use of reds, perhaps dating back 4000 years,
has been indicated on the Indian subcontinent and may have
its origin as a defloration colour.23 Red is the colour of
blood, therefore the colour of life, and also the colour of
bridal purity. However, the red may also be the symbol of
ripeness as in crops to be harvested. In Assam, for example,
Bihu dances “of ancient origin,” which take place annually
before the rains, emphasize fertility of the woman and of the
field to be different expressions of the same force. Prosper-
ity of the village depends on the abundance of both. The
dancers wear “creepers and flowers and other designs
mostly in bold red colour: the red as seen in Bihu songs is
a symbol for ripeness.”24
Calendar Customs
The traditional British home is decorated once each year in
celebration of Christmas. In Japan there are two important
celebrations. These concern a celebration for girls, hinama-
tsuri, and the Christmas/New Year period. Girl’s Day, a
celebration 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 allowed
to join in. This occurs in the season of peach blossom. “We
display peach blossoms. They are pink, so we associate pink
with this Girl’s Day.”25 Like other happy occasions pink
and red foods are eaten (see later).3
Christmas in Britain is associated with red and green.
This association has recently been imported into Japan
coinciding with a decline in traditional Buddhist practice
and its compatibility with existing customs of the New Year
period. The lucky red and white are traditionally associated
with New Year’s Day. “The celebrations begin ѧ with
bonenkai, or ’forget the year’ parties. ѧ Events begin to
warm up towards the end of the month, with decorations
appearing over doorways, and red and white cabbages being
planted auspiciously in tubs.”26 Much of the traditional food
eaten over this period is red and white.
Food
There are many traditions concerning food and eating, and
colour, central to communication and aesthetics, can be
found playing an essential role.27 In the normal eating
COLOR research and application
situation, foods must be within the colour range the eater
has been brought up to regard as proper. Colour is also a
mechanism for conferring health, as well as reinforcing and
transferring good luck to the important occasions of life
such as marriage. This includes colours specific to special
occasions.
Aspects of appearance as well as colour are important in
traditional foods. On Lammas (loaf mass) Day, celebrations
in medieval England included, the baking of loaves col-
oured red (with rose-petal), golden orange (saffron), yellow
(lemon), green (parsley), blue (thistle), indigo (plum), and
purple (violet). Iced fruitcakes, optionally tiered, are cus-
tomary for weddings and christenings in many countries.28
People of all religions ceremonially share foods during
celebrations. Table settings and room decoration also play
their part in festive meals. In food colour preferences there
are regional variations (darker foods are preferred in the
north of England, lighter in the south), and age variations
(children prefer brighter colours than adults).29 There are
also international differences in the colour of traditional
foods.
Rice is the staple diet of half the human population and a
source of much colour folklore. Although the most common
variety is white, rice does occur naturally in a number of
other colours. In China black, red, yellow, and violet rice
are used to treat various medical conditions, while rice that
has been dyed red is given to wedding guests. Rice coloured
yellow with turmeric or saffron is widely used in custom in
India, 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 part
of the celebration of many happy occasions such as wed-
dings, New Year’s Day, or anniversaries. Although most
rice is white in colour, to the Zumbagua in the Equadorian
Andes rice can be ethnically white. A neighbor may be seen
as pretentious for cooking it as an expensive food stands for
wealth, a cheap one for poverty.30
Over a large area of Europe and the East although many
colours are used to dye eggs, red is the most popular. In
2900 BP these were exchanged by the Chinese at spring
festivals. Today in Britain they are used in Easter games
such as egg rolling. In Romania, where red painted eggs are
called love apples, and Slovenia they represent love and
health. In Hungary, where the name for Easter eggs is piros
tojas or red eggs, and in Russia, Yugoslavia and Greece
they 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. This
represents security. Quality assessment comes under this
heading; food of incorrect colour arouses feelings of inse-
curity.
UNLUCKY GREEN
In Britain and Ireland green is an unlucky colour and many
will not wear it.32 Some will not have the colour in their
home. The link between green and courtship and weddings
is particularly strong. For example, “My brothers in-law
Volume 29, Number 1, February 2004
(from Forres in Moray) were most keen to prevent me
wearing green to his wedding—they knew it was a favorite
colour but insisted it was most unlucky to wear at a wed-
ding.”33 The earliest reference found observed that “[the
bride was] bedizened with ribbons ѧ of every ѧ colour ѧ
except forsaken green, which I was glad to perceive was not
worn by one of the throng.”34 The bad luck is reinforced at
wedding celebrations in the northeast of Scotland. If the
younger sister marries first, the luckless and disgraced elder
sister is taunted by being made to wear green stockings or
garters at the dance after the wedding. Reasons given and
postulated for this bad luck are numerous and are as much
a part of folklore as the belief in bad luck itself. They are
discussed under the headings of supernaturalist, rationalist
and historical.
Supernaturalist Explanations
Among mythical characters fairies take much of the
blame. They are associated with green through their habit of
dancing in green fairy circles (Tempest act 5 scene 1), from
the fact that their graveyards never brown,35 and that in
many areas they are reported to wear green. In the Outer
Hebrides, green objects were called blue; “green must not
be mentioned, lest it should call up the fairies.”36
In Britain fairies are usually reported to wear green, but
this is not the case in Ireland. Searches at University College
Dublin and Ulster Folk and Transport Museum revealed that
the fairies wore red, or white, or black or blue, or brown, or
in the north green. Andrews ascribed the regionalism in
dress to different tribes among the aboriginal inhabitants of
the island.37 However, they are as likely to have been
influenced by settlement in the north of the Scots and
English. In the southwest of England the Piskies are blamed
for the unlucky aspect of green. For example, “I was once
told off by a Cornish ‘grandmother in law’ for wearing
green the piskies colour.”38 Green gowns are worn by
witches,39 devils and demons.40 The hunter wears green to
hide among the greenery so that he may kill animals shel-
tering there; the Devil wears green to hide himself among
men so that he may capture their souls.41
God’s control over nature is cited as a reason for unlucky
green. “My father was a Highland Scot, when we were
young he would not allow us to wear green. I don’t think he
was superstitious, he was a devout Presbyterian and he felt
as the Almighty had clothed His world in green, it was
presumptuous of us to wear it—a kind of irreverence.”42
Another argument is that green-leafed trees are followed by
black bark in winter and black is for mourning. Hence to
avoid death one must avoid wearing green.43
There are a number of instances where green is unlucky
for fishermen. For example, “Staying in the west of Ireland
(Bantry Bay) with my cousins who live there I was told that
fishermen 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 luck
green is worn by the members of the association football
61
club team in the fishing port of Plymouth, England. This Sinclairs of Caithness, all of whom wore green in their
celebrates the association of the town with the story that tartans at the battle of Flodden in 1513, thereafter held the
Captain Drake played bowls on the town green before he set colour in disrepute after the terrible defeat when most were
sail to defeat the Spanish Armada. The Glasgow Celtic killed.40 In England violence revolved around the colour in
Football Club team also wears green but this club was the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Whig Green
formed within an Irish community in Scotland. Ribbon Club was formed during the period of religious
intolerance that followed the death of Charles I and the Civil
Rationalist Explanations War. Members of the Club, who wore green ribbons in their
hats, advocated a Protestant succession to the throne. A plot
Rational reasons for unlucky green include the stomach-
to kill Catholic King Charles II and his brother James in
ache that comes after eating overripe green meat or unripe
1683 failed. The Whig movement was disgraced, member-
green fruit. In the nineteenth century it was the colour of
ship became a risk, and the Club died.54
green arsenic-pigmented wallpaper which, when damp,
During Oldham wakes week in 1819 Radical Reformers,
gave off the poisonous gas arsine. Green is the continual
wearing green and red ribbons inscribed “liberty or death”
colour of the churchyard, where, in addition, the deep green
in their hats, demonstrated against the Corn Laws and the
poisonous yew trees are grown. In 1876 near Eccleshall an
consequent high grain prices. This was followed by the
old woman was found drowned in her well. “A patch of
massacre of demonstrators at Peterloo on August 16th of
particularly green turf long marked the spot where her body
that year.55 In 1820 another event reinforced the hatred of
was laid on being taken out of the water, and the neighbors,
green in Britain. Until then official government bags were
who had suspicions of foul play, pointed to this in confir-
green. At the trial of Queen Caroline wife of the Prince
mation of their opinion.”45 Bede was the first to write about
Regent, later the unpopular George IV, evidence against her
this, “At the same time a traveler, a Briton, came near the
was laid on the table in the House of Lords in these bags.
place where [St.] Oswald had been killed, and saw the grass
They became hateful to Londoners whose sympathy she had
was greener than in other places, and concluded that some
aroused. “It was a common thing during the trial to get up
holy man had been slain there.”46
bonfires to burn the green bag. ѧ After this green bags
The bad luck of green may have developed from the
silently disappeared.”56
equation of the green gown and the loss of virginity. In 1351
Wm Fox, parson of Lee near Gainsborough was indicted, in
that he forcibly took a nun, Margaret de Everingham, “re- GREEN IN THE FOLKLORE OF IRELAND
moved her habit and put on her a worldly green robe.”47 By
Ireland adds its own particular complex (and not totally
Elizabethan times the phrase ‘having a green gown’ was
agreed) dimension to the colour green. There are three
synonymous with pregnancy.48
strands to this dimension—Saint Patrick, the People and the
Rivers and pools in the north of England are often said to
Bloodshed, and the Emerald Isle.
be haunted by the malevolent spirit Jenny Greenteeth, who
Saint Patrick is inevitably associated with Ireland and the
drags down those who come too near. The legend seems
shamrock. For example, Boswell records in 1776, “It was
designed to warn of the presence of the giant green duck-
St. Patrick’s Day, and seeing the Irish with the green crosses
weed, Lemna minor, which covers large stretches of water
in their hats, gave me sensations of spirit which I connect
there and is dangerous to step on.49
with Ireland.”57 Green may have been adopted as the colour
The theatre provides its own reason for the actors’ super-
of Ireland in imitation of the shamrock.58 Today, on Saint
stition of wearing green. They say it belongs to the fairies
Patrick’s or Green Ribbon Day, green still has positive
who might resent its use by mummers and actors.50 A more
connotations among both Roman Catholics and Protestants
practical explanation is that during the era of green-tinged
in the North and the Republic alike. The five million Irish
limelight, invented in 1826 and used until the beginning of
migrants to North America during the seventeenth, eigh-
the present century, an actor wearing green would not stand
teenth and nineteenth centuries took green with them. To-
out as well as his colleagues.“51 Similarly, the green room
day the Irish there have no hesitation in celebrating St
behind the stage is the same colour as the limelight so it
Patrick’s Day with green clothes, make-up, and green
would not be seen from the auditorium.52
beer.59 Even the Chicago River may be dyed green for the
Irish fairies, especially in the south, do not wear green so
celebration60
the fairy explanation for unlucky green may not be appro-
Henry II of England was acknowledged King of Ireland
priate. This may revolve around the ease and cheapness of
by a Council at Cashel in 1171, although his claim predates
dyeing cloth green and brown. “Only the rich could afford
this. The commission set up by Edward IV (king of England
scarlet, blue and purple clothes. Green and brown are there-
1461–1470, 1471–1483) appointed to discover the arms of
fore the dress of the poorest of the population, and it must
Ireland, suggested that the banner of Saint Edmund, flown
be unlucky to be poor.”53
by early Anglo-Norman invaders, would be suitable. This
banner displayed three gold crowns on a blue background.
Historical Explanations Henry VIII (king of England 1509 –1547) abandoned the
Specific historical events may have provided reasons for crowns in favor of the harp, presumed to be an emblem of
unlucky green. Descendants of the Ogilvies, Grahams and the old kings of Ireland.61 The earliest depiction of the Irish

62 COLOR research and application

harp on a blue ground was in a French armorial of the late
thirteenth century.62 The blue shield with a gold harp with
silver strings remains the official arms of the Republic of
Ireland as borne by the presidential flag.
The flag of the people (as opposed to the flag of the
President), the Irish harp on a green ground, was in exis-
tence in the middle of the seventeenth century. Its origins
are obscure. “When green was first thought of as the colour
of all others that is distinctive of things Irish, history is
unlikely to be able to inform us.”63 However, “in early Irish
mythology the sovereignty of Ireland is symbolized as a
woman, sometimes dressed in green, sometimes in purple or
deep blue.”64 The early Irish poets saw the country as
“woven from the green of the fields and the purple of the
hills.”65
Invited by Tory and Whig opponents of James II, William
of Orange accepted the throne of England and reigned from
1689 to 1702. Irish Catholics supported James II who
landed with French and Irish forces in 1689 and besieged
the Protestant stronghold of Londonderry. In the following
year William with his English and Dutch army met and beat
James II at the Battle of the Boyne. After the Williamite
victory and during the eighteenth century the Anglo-Irish
gentry saw themselves as ‘Irish’ through their ownership of
the land. “They adopted the harp, Saint Patrick (and prob-
ably green).”66
The use of the green flag then seems to have been
overshadowed by the blue but a resurgence of significance
came with the 1798 rebellion. Contemporary writers stated
that green was adopted by the Irish malcontents as a na-
tional and revolutionary colour.58 The acceptance of green
by the people as an Irish symbol is illustrated by its wide-
spread use in the Volunteer and other flags. Indeed, the
uniforms of many such organizations had been changed to
contain green by the time of the rebellion.63 The green flag
survived as the national banner and was used consistently as
the flag of Ireland until 1916. This was in spite of the
inclusion 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 in
1798 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 and
named in memory of William III of Orange. Before 1848
“the colours orange and green had come respectively to
signify the upholders and opponents of establishment:
loosely at first the Established Church party on the one hand
and Catholics and dissenters on the other, this division being
transformed later into a simpler Protestant and Catholic
divide.”66 The first mention of a three coloured device
occurs in 1830 in a letter from Miss Amelia Eleanor Ham-
ilton of Dublin to the Marquess of Westmeath. She quoted
Edward Lysaght’s verse:
“May orange and green no longer be seen
Distained with the blood of our island.”
Volume 29, Number 1, February 2004
Miss Hamilton saw the symbolism of orange as “of a
patriot king, a necessary revolution and a bill of rights; the
green 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’s
fairly elected representatives in parliament.”63
Ireland and France were historically close as during the
eighteenth century half a million Irishmen had fought for
France. The overturning of the French throne in 1848 in-
spired a linking of the ideas of the revolution with the spirit
in Ireland. The symbol of the revolution was the tricolour,
and the French republican colours struck a cord with the
Irish 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, “The
white in the center signifies a lasting truce between the
‘Orange’ and the ‘Green’, and I trust that beneath its folds
the hands of Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be
clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.”63 The tricol-
our, widely used during the Dublin rebellion of 1916, then
superceded the green flag as the flag of the new Irish
Republic.
There are three instances in which the term Emerald Isle
is applicable to Ireland. In 1159 Henry II was given Ireland
by Nicholas Breakspear, alias Adrian IV, the only English
pope. This was on condition he invaded Ireland and re-
formed the church. John of Salisbury wrote that “He sent
moreover by me to the King a golden ring, adorned by a fine
emerald, in token of his investiture with the government of
Ireland and this ring is still, by the King’s command, pre-
served in the public treasury.”67 The second connection is
with the colour of the lush grassland of the Ireland, encour-
aged by the warm wet north Atlantic rains. This is often
described as emerald green. In celebration of either or both
items 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 defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
In summary, three elements have combined to foster
green as the essence of Ireland—Patrick, the People and the
Poets. 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 green
flag supported the fight for the formation of the Republic.
Once seen to be their colour it was the people who drove
forward its total adoption, via uniforms, favors and flags, in
their fight against the common enemy. In fact, the flag of the
Republic might still have been green had it not been for the
French Revolution. Reinforcing the impetus for green and
driving the folklore back in time were the poets, who sought
to advertise the lushness and myth of the Irish landscape,
and the songwriters, who linked these with the patriotic
vision of the green. Thus green is unlucky but it is also the
colour of Irish nationhood.63 Hence, it must be worn but it
must not be worn. Thus, “ѧ green is our national colour. I
63
have often heard that it is worn as a sign of hope. Perhaps
it hasn’t brought us much luck.”68
COLOUR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SYMBOLISM
The traditional function of a flag is to reinforce a sense of
purpose, to act as a focus, and to inflate emotions. When
feelings 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 a
colour means anything we decide it to mean.32 The mech-
anism involved can be illustrated using the above discussion
of green in language symbolism.
Green, as all major colours, has many symbolic mean-
ings69 which involve both positive and negative feelings and
emotions. For green most of these appear connected with
life, springtime and growth or with decay. Indeed, green and
growth have common origins through their Old High Ger-
man root. A brief look at Shakespeare (1564 –1616) pro-
vides examples. Positive associations include freshness and
fertility, hence youth and innocence ([Romeo]: “Hath not so
green, so quick, so fair an eye, As Paris hath,” (Romeo and
Juliet act 3 scene 5); hence also unripeness, inexperience,
ignorance (“You speak like a green girl,” Hamlet act 1 scene
3). Negative associations derive from the colour of unripe
fruit, mould, decomposition and decay. They include the
green of poison and those emotions related to poison such as
envy and jealousy (“Beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the
green-eyed monster,” Othello act 3 scene 3).
Once such rules are established (that is, green symbolizing
growth, its use in cures and denoting bad luck), beliefs or
usages that grow around it normally work for the perceived
needs of the community and regionalism occurs (for example,
the numerous ‘reasons’ for unlucky green). The beliefs are
limited only by the imagination and variation can result in
startling polarities. Referring to the above three rules:
1. Growth symbolism applies to apparently irreconcilable
positive and negative feelings and emotions; also, not
only is, say, organic farming seen as being ‘good for the
environment’, but green is used to advertise noxious
and dangerous materials, processes and places such as
packaging and atomic power stations;
2. Cures can be made using green objects in place of real
greenery.
3. The reasons for bad luck exhibit a high degree of
variation differing with community.
The positive and negative nature of symbolic green is not
confined to the English language. For Hindus and Buddhists
it 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 colours
can have such diverse meanings. Wallis-Budge, for exam-
ple, writes that a colour is either good or bad. Green, he
says, is good, symbolizing hope and confidence.16
All common symbolic meanings for green are derived
from the growth that occurs in springtime and the growth of
64
decay. This phenomenon appears to be cross-cultural, hence
non-regional. Apparent contradictions can be resolved using
the Principle of Singularity. This states that “at any one
time, to any one person, a colour symbolizes only one
emotion or feeling regardless of what that colour may
symbolize to another person or to the same person on
another occasion.” This principle can be seen at work in the
supermarket, 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 to
subtle shades of green. A mid-nineteenth century text noted
that wedding dress ribbons coloured grass-green indicated
youthful jollity, popinjay-green meant wantonness, willow
meant forsaken, and sea-green indicated inconstancy.73
Such subtleties, then as now, seldom gain wide acceptance
because of disagreements on the names to be attached to
particular shades.
CONCLUSIONS
There appear to be four methods by which particular colours
become linked with folklore events. Choice is governed by
the contrast displayed, as a transfer from the perceived or
actual usefulness of the colour, by association, and by
availability.
Colour has been used since before the times of the cave
painters. 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, and
for symbolism. A colour applied as part of a painting to a
wall, 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 larger
the colour difference the more visible the signal. Such are
the principles behind early heraldic and flag designs. The
largest contrast available to us is that existing between black
and white, between dark and light. These colours are widely
available, blackish colorants from fire, and whitish from
clays. They are equated anthropologically with two of the
three body fluids (excrement and milk). Red, the colour of
blood, would seem to be the automatic choice for the third
member of the triad especially as it is also of good contrast
with the other two colours. The triad is also symbolically
linked with the black, white (ash) and red (flame) of fire
(Edeline, private communication).
Anthropologically the colours black, white, and red are
nominal descriptions. The actual colour range of red includes
paler and darker reds, browns, oranges and some yellows. This
range occupies a large part of colour space, only greenish,
bluish and purplish hues are excluded. It might be argued that
the wide availability of red from minerals, blood, burned earth,
and vegetable sources, again renders it as an automatic choice
for a third colour. There is evidence, however, that the choice
of red is more than coincidental. Australian aborigines, using
red for body decoration, travel hundreds of miles to fetch red
COLOR research and application
colouring from ochre pits believed to be blood-stained scenes
of death of their ancestors. In these examples the convenience
argument cannot be countenanced as great effort was involved
in the procurement.
The colour triad, red, black and white, recognized by the
anthropologist74 as tending to occur in all body decoration,
can also be found in linguistics,75 archaeology and folk
stories.76 These colours are or were worn by brides in
eastern Europe and are often seen at Japanese weddings
through the bride’s red and white and the groom’s black and
white. 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 gift
tradition in Scotland at New Year. Iron, made black through
fire, is a protective material, for example, the horseshoe seen
nailed to many doors throughout Europe. Salt is a powerful
preservative (therefore seen as magic) and a traditional gift
left for the new occupiers of a house. Silver featured in
cures, and the red berries of the rowan were used to safe-
guard cattle from sickness. The extension of the triad carries
as 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 are
many legends of black dogs in Britain, where the sudden
appearance of a white horse can be put to one’s advantage.
The milk of a red cow was held to be particularly auspicious
in northern Europe. The choice of human and animal col-
ouration is restricted to those resulting from melanin-based
pigments, but the choice of flower colour is not. Neverthe-
less in Britain white flowers are “funeral flowers” and must
not be brought indoors. That red and white flowers must not
be given together to hospital patients is one of the most
commonly reported beliefs today—the result will be death.
There are no particular beliefs associated with flowers of
other colours. Foods can also be a range of colours, yet salt
as well as black food are features of Scottish folklore and
red foods are used in happy occasions in the Far East.
Specifically coloured animals and artifacts, it seems, are
used to reinforce belief about the colour itself.
The second method depends upon a practical use of the
colorant. This includes saffron and turmeric used in Hindu
and Moslem marriage and funeral ceremonies. According to
a seventh century Chinese traveler in India red and yellow
textile colours were regarded as auspicious colours which
“repel demons”.77 In twelfth century Kashmir washermen
used saffron, prized as a yellow-orange dye, to perfume and
protect clothing from insect attack.72 Later references cite
the use of pounded turmeric,78 sandal wood and red lead in
the disinfection of grave sites.79
Many examples of adoption of colour into folklore by
association are detailed above. These range from the histor-
ical associations of green and Ireland and Queen Anne’s
green 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 the
bride, and the use of achromatics as mourning colours.
Volume 29, Number 1, February 2004
In healing it has long been a principle that ‘like cures like’.
Red and yellow have been cited as examples. The folklore use
of green in cures is based, as is medicine today, on natural fresh
greens and the greens of mould. But, placebos excepting,
unlike modern medicine, some may have been based on colour
substitutes for natural greens. Hence, for green there are two
themes to the principle, that of “curing of human and animal
life with vegetable life,” and “healing using inorganic instead
of organic green materials.”
There are many origins for the widespread belief that
green is an unlucky colour. However, all explanations are
relevant to the population involved. To account for this we
can postulate a Darwinian-type principle of behavior. That
is, “to survive within a community a belief must have
relevance to that community.” Or, more simply, “as myths
persist they get updated according to their relevance to the
community.” This might be called a Principle of Adaptation
of Ideas, as opposed to a Principle of Adaptation of Physical
Resources. The latter, originally simply the Principle of
Adaptation, 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 we
require life to contain certain elements. Alongside statutory
regulations for wider government we require more localized
rules within our immediate community, within our family
and within ourselves. These control our moral behavior as
well as local ceremonial behavior. Involved are codes of
behavior linking members of social groups. These include
the needs, for example, to celebrate gods, rites of passage
and seasons of the year. All involve the use of colour and
appearance in some way. Whoever we are it seems we need
to be able to explain the world around us, it is the powerful
use of colour that reinforces our explanation. Colour is used
to make events immediately more imaginable and it can also
be immediately recognizable to another member of the tribe
that you are doing the correct things appropriate to the
occasion—whether this is in life or in death. Use of colour
words in language obeys the Principle of Singularity, and a
colour can ‘mean’ exactly what we want it to mean.
As to the biological mechanism permitting these many
and contrasting uses of colour, as van Allesch pointed out,
it is “a complex of qualities of which certain ones become
more or less pronounced according to a perceiver’s experi-
ence and attitude.”80 That is, it depends on the fact that
colour is a perception, not the property of an object.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks are due to Dr Venetia Newall, Professor John
Widdowson, Dr Juliette Wood, Dr Gillian Bennett, Roy
Vickery and members of the Folklore Society committee for
their encouragement and tutelage. Also, to the archivists and
librarians of the institutions raided and to all contributors to
this study. For his valuable suggestions my thanks are due
to Dr Mike Pointer.
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