White

The Taliban flag is white with the Muslim declaration of faith in black. It replaced the black, red and green tricolour of the republic in 2021.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo wore white headscarves as they marched to demand news of children who disappeared under the dictatorship of 1976 to 1983.

The wiphala, a square flag of 49 small squares in seven colours with a white diagonal, stands for the Andean peoples. It has been a second national flag since 2009.

On New Year's Eve crowds on the beaches dress in white for peace in the year ahead. The custom comes from the Afro-Brazilian religions, whose followers wear white.

An ordinary citizen's kabney is white with fringes. It must be worn to enter a dzong, the fortress that houses both monks and government offices.

A red cross on white, the Swiss flag reversed, marks medical staff and aid workers in war and must not be attacked under the Geneva Conventions.

A lone white star sits on the blue of the flag. It is read as a guide on the path of progress and honour.

White is the traditional colour of death and mourning. Families wore undyed white cloth at funerals, and condolence money is still given in white envelopes.

A person newly initiated into Santeria, called an iyawo, dresses entirely in white for a year and keeps the head covered.

The flag's designers avoided blue and red, the colours of Greece and Turkey. The white field and two olive branches stand for peace between the island's communities.

The national football team plays in white shirts and black shorts, the colours of the old Prussian flag, not those of the national flag.

Algiers is called Alger la Blanche, the white city, for its whitewashed buildings. Women there once went out wrapped in the haik, a large white cloth.

Orthodox Christians go to church wrapped in the netela, a thin white cotton shawl. At Timkat, the feast of Epiphany, crowds in white follow the priests to the water.

On the eve of May Day, students and former students of every age put on their white graduation caps for picnics and parties in the parks.

White was the colour of the Bourbon kings. In the tricolour it sits between the blue and red of Paris, and after 1815 the restored monarchy flew a plain white flag.

French 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.

Queen Victoria married in white silk and lace in 1840. Prints of the dress spread widely, and white became the usual colour for brides across the West.

White is worn for a baby's naming day, for thanksgiving after an illness and at the funeral of someone who died very old, when the family gives thanks for a long life.

In Vodou each spirit has its colours. White is for Danbala, the serpent spirit of wisdom, and people often wear white to ceremonies.

Muslims, the majority, wrap the dead in a plain white shroud, the kafan. In Bali, Hindus wear white to temple ceremonies and cremations.

The white in the middle of the flag stands for a lasting peace between the green and orange traditions.

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.

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.

The white edging on the flag stands for peace and honesty. In Maasai beadwork, white is the colour of milk and so of health and purity.

The ak kalpak is a tall white felt hat worn by men. Its shape recalls a snow peak, and it is treated with respect: it should not be put on the ground.

At a funeral the family wear white, and the children of the dead may shave their heads. White is the colour of mourning, as in much of the region.

Koreans were long known as the white-clad people, because plain white hanbok was everyday dress for commoners well into the twentieth century.

At a traditional funeral the family wore pale, undyed hemp. Today mourners mostly wear black suits, but close relatives may still pin on a small white ribbon.

White, ak, means pure and blessed in Kazakh. A common blessing is ak zhol, a white road, wishing someone a good journey through life.

In the baci ceremony, elders tie white cotton threads around a person's wrists to call back their wandering spirits and wish them well. The threads are left on for three days.

Sinhalese Buddhists wear white to the temple and to funerals. White flags and banners are strung along the road to a house where someone has died.

The narrow white band of the flag is the part of the legendary sheet where the wounded chief lay. The red and white banner is named in a medieval chronicle.

A widow traditionally wears white through the mourning period set by Islamic law, four months and ten days. Black is not the usual colour of grief here.

The flag is white, red and green. Red and white were the royal colours of the Merina kingdom of the highlands, and the green band was added when the flag was adopted in 1958.

The lunar New Year is Tsagaan Sar, the White Moon. White stands for milk and purity, and the table is laid with dairy foods called white foods.

White is the colour of royal mourning. When a ruler dies, men wear a white band around the songkok, the black cap worn with Malay dress.

In Yoruba religion, white belongs to Obatala, the orisha who shaped human bodies. His priests and followers wear white cloth and offer white foods.

After a parent dies, a Hindu son traditionally shaves his head and wears only white for a year. Widows also wore white in many communities.

At Parihaka in Taranaki, the followers of Te Whiti and Tohu wore white feathers, raukura, as a sign of peaceful resistance to the taking of their land.

In the Maori flag, Tino Rangatiratanga, black is the long darkness before the world began, red is the coming into being, and white is the world of light.

The flag is white, red and green. White is for peace, red for the battles of the past, and green for the Jebel Akhdar, the Green Mountain.

The pollera, the national dress of women, is a wide white cotton skirt and blouse with embroidery in a single colour, worn with gold combs and pearl hair ornaments.

The national football team wears a white shirt with a red sash from shoulder to hip, and is called the Blanquirroja, the white and red.

The white triangle on the flag stands for equality and fraternity. Its three stars are for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

The white stripe at the hoist of the flag stands for the country's religious minorities. Together the green and white are the national colours.

The white of the flag stands for the white eagle of the arms. The national football team is known as the Bialo-Czerwoni, the White and Reds.

The white band of the flag stands for peace. The nine points where it meets the maroon mark Qatar as the ninth member of the reconciled emirates of the Gulf.

The flag is white, blue and red. It dates from the time of Peter the Great, was restored in 1991, and no meaning for the colours is fixed in law.

Men on the pilgrimage to Mecca wear ihram, two pieces of plain unstitched white cloth. Dressed alike, a king and a labourer cannot be told apart.

The everyday dress of Saudi men is the thobe, a long white robe. White cotton reflects the sun, and darker wool thobes come out in winter.

On 13 December, Saint Lucy's Day, a girl in a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles leads a procession of singers in white.

Students finishing secondary school put on a white cap with a black peak, the studentmossa, and are driven around town on open lorries.

Members of the governing People's Action Party wear white shirts and trousers at party events. The uniform is meant to show clean, honest government.

The white Star of Unity on the flag has five points, one for each of the regions where Somali people live.

Jasmine, the small white national flower, is sold in tight bunches on summer evenings. The uprising of 2011 is known abroad as the Jasmine Revolution.

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

Cotton is called white gold, and an open cotton boll appears on the state emblem. The white band of the flag stands for peace and purity.

The pope wears a white cassock. When cardinals elect a new pope, white smoke rises from the Sistine Chapel chimney, and black smoke means no decision.