Colours in Canada and Japan

Red and white are the national colours. The flag, a red maple leaf between two red bars, was adopted in 1965 after a long debate in parliament.

Officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police wear the Red Serge, a scarlet tunic with a high collar, on ceremonial duty. It is one of the best known images of the country abroad.

Empty red dresses hung in public places stand for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The idea comes from the REDress Project by the Metis artist Jaime Black.

The torii gates of Shinto shrines are often painted vermilion, a bright orange-red. The colour is held to keep evil away, and the long tunnels of gates at Fushimi Inari are the best known.

On 30 September people wear orange shirts to remember the children sent to residential schools. Phyllis Webstad's new orange shirt was taken from her on her first day at one.

Orange is also the colour of the New Democratic Party. Its sweep of Quebec seats in the 2011 election was called the Orange Wave.

Many First Nations use the medicine wheel, a circle in four parts. A common form has yellow, red, black and white quarters for the four directions, though the colours vary between nations.

The flag of Quebec, the Fleurdelise, is blue with a white cross and four white lilies. Blue is the colour of Quebec nationalism and of the Parti Quebecois.

Indigo dyeing, called aizome, clothed ordinary people in deep blue through the Edo period. The men's national football team plays in blue and is nicknamed Samurai Blue.

Purple dye from the murasaki plant was costly and hard to make. In the court rank system set up under Prince Shotoku, the highest officials wore purple caps.

Pale pink is the colour of cherry blossom. In spring people picnic under the trees for hanami, flower viewing, and the short bloom is a common image for how brief life is.

A bride at a Shinto wedding may wear the shiromuku, a kimono that is white from head to foot. White is also the colour of the paper streamers that mark sacred places.

Red and white together, called kohaku, mark happy occasions. Curtains at ceremonies are striped red and white, and the New Year's Eve song contest sets a Red team against a White team.

Mourners wear plain black, called mofuku, to funerals, and men add a black tie. Condolence money goes in an envelope tied with black and white cord.