Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Colours of Death

BLACK: In Western culture, this has become the colour most widely associated with funerals and mourning. If the Grim Reaper is depicted, he is most often portrayed wearing robes of midnight black.

GREEN: According to certain Irish traditions, green is the colour of faeries and the Otherworld, and is thus related to the spirits of the dead.

PURPLE: In Victorian times, the horses in a funeral procession wore purple plumes upon their heads. Elements of this practice still linger in the purple colour of the flags used to designate the cars in a funeral procession.

RED: The crimson colour of fresh blood, red has associations with violence, death, and passion.

WHITE: The colour of the funeral shroud. In Eastern cultures, white - not black - is the colour of death.

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