Colours in India and Japan

Many Hindu brides marry in a red sari or lehenga. In much of north India a married woman wears sindoor, a red powder, along the parting of her hair.

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.

Saffron is the colour of renunciation, worn by Hindu sadhus, holy men who have given up worldly life. The top band of the national flag is saffron, which stands for strength and courage.

People wear yellow for Vasant Panchami, the spring festival of the goddess Saraswati. Before many weddings, turmeric paste is rubbed on the bride and groom in the haldi ceremony.

The green band of the national flag stands for the country's tie to the soil and to plant life, as Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan explained it when the flag was adopted in 1947.

Krishna, Rama and Vishnu are painted with blue skin, the colour of the sky and the deep sea. The wheel at the centre of the national flag, the Ashoka Chakra, is navy blue.

Blue is the colour of Dalit politics. Followers of B. R. Ambedkar carry blue flags, and the Bahujan Samaj Party campaigns under a blue flag with an elephant.

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.

At Holi, the spring festival of colours, friends and strangers smear each other with gulal, a coloured powder. Pink and red gulal are the best known shades.

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.

White is the Hindu colour of mourning. Families wear plain white to funerals, and in many communities widows traditionally wore white saris without ornament.

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.

A dot of black kajal is often put on a baby's cheek or forehead to turn away the evil eye, called nazar. Many people avoid black clothes at weddings and festivals.

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.

Gold jewellery is bought on Dhanteras and Akshaya Tritiya, two days held to be lucky for it. A bride's gold is both ornament and her own store of wealth.