Colour and emotion
The colours of grief
Black in Europe and the Americas, white in Hindu India and much of East Asia, red and black in Ghana: grief has no single colour.
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Grief is the feeling whose colour changes most from place to place. Mourners wear black in most of Europe and the Americas, white in Hindu India and in traditional Chinese and Korean funerals, red and black among the Akan of Ghana, and purple in some Catholic settings. These are customs with long histories, not reactions built into the eye. What they share is restraint: plain cloth, no ornament, one colour. The colour tells others that a person is bereaved and should be treated gently.
What studies find
Psychology has little to say about mourning colours, because they are learned customs and not perceptions. The one clear trace in survey data is local. In the 30-nation survey led by Domicele Jonauskaite, people in China linked white to sadness more than others did, which fits white's role at funerals. Historians give better answers. Black cloth was costly to dye well in Europe, so deep black first marked wealthy mourners. European queens once mourned in white. Strict stages of black, then grey and purple, were a nineteenth-century fashion made famous by Queen Victoria, who wore black for forty years after Prince Albert died in 1861.
In language
Chinese calls funerals 'white affairs' (baishi), the opposite of the 'red affairs' of weddings. Korean has sobok, plain white mourning clothes. In Persian and Urdu a mourner is siyah-posh, 'black-clad'. Spanish and Portuguese speakers go 'de luto', in mourning, a phrase that by itself implies black. English kept 'widow's weeds' for a widow's black clothes and 'black armband' for a public sign of loss. French historians use 'deuil blanc', white mourning, for the dress of bereaved queens. In each case the colour word has come to mean the state of mourning itself.
Around the world
Hindu families usually wear white to a funeral, and widows in many communities traditionally wore white afterwards. In Chinese tradition close relatives wear white or undyed cloth. Japan mourned in white for centuries and moved to black from the late nineteenth century. Among the Akan of Ghana, red and black cloth is worn for most funerals, and white for the funeral of someone who lived to a great age. Many Shia Muslims wear black during Muharram to mourn Imam Husayn. In Mexico, the Day of the Dead welcomes the dead home with orange marigolds. Many Aboriginal Australian peoples have treated white as the colour of the dead.
Where it is used
Mourning colours shape public life. Sports teams wear black armbands after a death. Flags fly at half mast and websites turn black and white. When King Bhumibol of Thailand died in 2016, the government asked people to wear black, and many did for a year. Funeral dress is loosening in many countries: families now often ask guests to wear bright colours or the dead person's favourite. For visitors the practical rule is to ask. A white outfit that is correct at a Hindu cremation would look out of place at a funeral in Rome, and the reverse is also true.
Grief in colour, place by place
Hindu mourners usually wear plain white to a funeral. In many communities widows traditionally wore white afterwards, a custom now less strict.
Funerals are called 'white affairs'. Close relatives traditionally wear white or undyed cloth, and gift money is given in white envelopes.
Among the Akan, mourners wear red and black cloth at most funerals. White is worn when the dead person lived to a great age.
Queen Victoria wore black from Prince Albert's death in 1861 until her own in 1901, and set the pattern for strict mourning dress in black.
For the Day of the Dead, families lay paths and altars of orange cempasúchil marigolds, whose colour and scent are said to guide the dead home.
Many Aboriginal peoples treat white as the colour of the dead. Widows in some regions wore heavy white clay mourning caps, known as kopi.
After King Bhumibol Adulyadej died in October 2016, people across Thailand wore black, many of them for a full year of mourning.
From the table of meanings
On 21 February, Language Martyrs' Day, people wear black badges and black and white clothes and walk barefoot to the Shaheed Minar to honour those killed in 1952.
Mourning and deathPolitics and protestGriefSource: Bengali language movementBlack is the usual colour of mourning. Widows in older generations wore it for a year, and the custom is called luto.
Mourning and deathGriefSource: MourningEmpty 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.
Mourning and deathProtection and healingGriefSource: REDress ProjectOn 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.
Mourning and deathPolitics and protestGriefSource: National Day for Truth and ReconciliationWhite is the traditional colour of death and mourning. Families wore undyed white cloth at funerals, and condolence money is still given in white envelopes.
Mourning and deathGriefSource: Color in Chinese cultureFrench queens once mourned in white, a custom called deuil blanc. Mary, Queen of Scots, was painted in white mourning after the death of her husband, Francis II.
Mourning and deathRoyalty and powerGriefSource: MourningAfter Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life. Victorian widows were expected to wear full black for at least a year.
Mourning and deathGriefSource: MourningAt Akan funerals the close family wear red or red and black. Red shows the sharpest grief, and it is often worn when the death was sudden or the person young.
Mourning and deathGriefSource: Akan peopleClose family wear black for at least forty days after a death, and often for a year. In villages many widows keep to black for the rest of their lives.
Mourning and deathGriefSource: MourningMuslims, the majority, wrap the dead in a plain white shroud, the kafan. In Bali, Hindus wear white to temple ceremonies and cremations.
Mourning and deathPurity and peaceGriefSource: Islamic funeralWhite is the Hindu colour of mourning. Families wear plain white to funerals, and in many communities widows traditionally wore white saris without ornament.
Mourning and deathPurity and peaceGriefSource: MourningFor Ashura and Arbaeen, millions of pilgrims walk to Karbala dressed in black, and black banners for Imam Husayn line the roads.
Mourning and deathSacred and holyGriefSource: Mourning of MuharramIn Muharram, Shia Muslims wear black for Imam Husayn. Among clerics, a black turban marks a sayyid, a descendant of the Prophet, and others wear white.
Mourning and deathSacred and holyGriefSource: Mourning of MuharramMourners 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.
Mourning and deathGriefSource: Japanese funeralColours that carry grief
Also part of it, and being written: Marigold.
More colours our sources tie to grief
Sources and further reading
- Mourning on Wikipedia
- Australian Museum: Mourning, Indigenous Australia
- UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage: Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead (Mexico)
- BBC Religions: Ashura
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz: Colors evoke similar feelings around the world
Original text by the Rang desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Meanings of colour vary from place to place and person to person. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Red: Politikaner, CC BY-SA 3.0, source