Colours in United States and Japan

Since the television maps of the 2000 election, red has meant the Republican Party and blue the Democrats, giving the phrases red state and blue state. Before then the networks had no fixed scheme.

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.

Orange and black are the colours of Halloween, 31 October: orange for pumpkins and autumn leaves, black for night.

A yellow ribbon tied round a tree or pinned to a coat means someone is waiting for a loved one to come home. It spread during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 to 1981.

School buses across the country are painted one shade of yellow, agreed at a conference in 1939 because black lettering on it is easy to read in early morning light.

Paper money is nicknamed the greenback, after the green ink on the backs of notes first issued during the Civil War. Green has stood for money ever since.

On Saint Patrick's Day, Chicago dyes its river bright green, a custom begun in 1962, and people who wear no green risk a playful pinch.

The flag's colours have no official meaning. For the Great Seal of 1782, though, blue was said to stand for vigilance, perseverance and justice, white for purity and red for hardiness and valour.

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.

The Purple Heart is the medal given to members of the armed forces wounded or killed in action. It is a purple heart with a profile of George Washington.

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.

The pink ribbon has stood for breast cancer awareness since the early 1990s. Each October, sports teams and shops turn pink for the cause.

Pink for girls and blue for boys became the firm rule in American shops only around the middle of the twentieth century. Earlier advice was mixed and sometimes the other way round.

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.

Women campaigning for the vote marched in white dresses. Women in Congress have worn white to presidential addresses in memory of them.

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.

A gold star stands for a family member killed in military service. The custom began in the First World War, when families changed the blue star on a window banner to gold.