Colours in Israel and Japan

Some people wear a thin red string around the left wrist against the evil eye. The strings are often said to have been wound around Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem. It is a folk custom.

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.

Opponents of the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza took orange as their colour, tying orange ribbons to cars and bags. Supporters of the plan answered with blue.

Since the attack of 7 October 2023, yellow ribbons and yellow chairs have stood for the hostages taken to Gaza and for the demand to bring them home.

The flag is white with two blue stripes and a Star of David. The stripes recall the tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl, which is white with blue or black bands.

Tekhelet is the blue dye the Torah commands for one thread of the fringes on a prayer shawl. The method was lost for centuries, and some Jews now use a dye made from sea snails.

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.

On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, many Jews dress in white, and some men wear a white robe called a kittel. On kibbutzim, white is also worn for the harvest festival of Shavuot.

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.

Haredi, or strictly Orthodox, Jewish men wear black suits, black hats and white shirts every day. The cut of a coat or hat can show which community a man belongs to.

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.