Sunday, January 15, 2017

Green on Wednesday

I found a website that describes the cultural meanings of colours. The site is http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/cultural-color.html. We tend to know the associations of green - a very popularly used colour in Western societies. 
  • lucky color in most western cultures
  • spring, new birth, regeneration
  • nature and environmental awareness 
  • color for 'go' at traffic lights
  • Saint Patrick's Day 
  • Christmas combined with red
  • jealousy
  • greed
We would include money for western cultures too.  But then I came across the entry for Thailand. Green is the colour of the day for Wednesday. There is a colour for each day:
Sunday - red
Monday - yellow or cream
Tuesday - pink
Wednesday - green
Thursday - orange or brown
Friday - light blue
Saturday - purple or black

What happens in a society where there is a colour for each day?  The colours for the King and Queen of Thailand are significant, and the population wears yellow for the King and blue for the Queen on their birthdays. Political controversy is expressed in yellow shirts by the Alliance for Democracy.  Those opposing this group wear red shirts.  Those who want to be neutral wear pink shirts.  For the photographer, this is a visual feasts.

There's more information on colours in Thailand here.

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