Colours in Vietnam and Japan

At Tet, the lunar New Year, children and elders are given lucky money in red envelopes, and homes are hung with red banners. Brides often marry in a red ao dai.

The flag is red with a yellow star. Red stands for revolution and bloodshed, and the five points of the star for workers, peasants, soldiers, intellectuals and traders.

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.

Yellow was the colour of the emperors. The Nguyen rulers at Hue wore yellow robes, and yellow was the main colour of their flags.

In the south, families bring home branches of yellow apricot blossom, hoa mai, for Tet. A tree that flowers on New Year's morning is taken as a good sign.

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 is tied to the old capital, Hue, where schoolgirls and women were known for violet ao dai. In songs and poems it is the colour of faithful, wistful love.

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.

In the north, pink peach blossom is the flower of Tet. Families in Hanoi buy a flowering branch or small tree for the house before the holiday.

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.

At a funeral the children and grandchildren of the dead wear white headbands and loose white clothes of rough cloth.

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.