Colours of sacred and holy

Armenian scribes painted manuscripts with vordan karmir, a crimson dye made from an insect that lives on the roots of grasses in the Ararat plain.

Red ochre is used in Aboriginal rock art and ceremony, and is traded over long distances. In the Aboriginal flag the red half stands for the earth and for that ochre.

The flag, the Dannebrog, is a white cross on red. Legend says it fell from the sky during a battle in Estonia in 1219. Danes use it on birthday tables and Christmas trees.

The flag has a large red cross on white with four small crosses. It was a medieval banner brought back into use by the opposition and made official in 2004.

Eggs are dyed red on the Thursday before Easter to stand for the blood of Christ. After the midnight service families crack them against each other.

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.

The silk shroud used to wrap the dead is called lambamena, which means red cloth, whatever its real colour. Families rewrap their ancestors in fresh ones at the famadihana ceremony.

Monks wear robes of deep maroon. When thousands of them marched against the military government in 2007, the protests were named the Saffron Revolution.

At Dashain, elders press tika, a paste of rice, yoghurt and red vermilion, on the foreheads of younger relatives as a blessing.

Kokowai, red ochre mixed with oil, was painted on Maori carvings, canoes and meeting houses. Red is a colour of tapu, the sacred, and of chiefly rank.

Each January, devotees in maroon and yellow crowd the streets of Manila for the procession of the Black Nazarene, a dark wooden statue of Christ carrying the cross.

The flag is red with a red cross on a white corner. The red stands for the blood of Christ, and the constitution says the flag must never be changed.

Cardinals wear scarlet. The colour means that they must be ready to shed their blood for the faith.

The flag is split corner to corner. The orange half stands for the Buddhist tradition, and the white dragon across the middle for purity.

Saffron is the colour of renunciation, worn by Hindu sadhus, holy men who have given up worldly life. The top band of the national flag is saffron, which stands for strength and courage.

Buddhist monks in saffron and orange robes walk out each morning to collect food. Most Khmer men traditionally spent some time as a monk.

At dawn in Luang Prabang, lines of monks in orange robes walk the streets to receive sticky rice from kneeling townspeople.

Buddhist monks wear robes from bright saffron to deep maroon, and the shade often shows which monastic order a monk belongs to.

For the Day of the Dead, altars and graves are covered in orange marigolds, cempasuchil. Their colour and scent are said to guide the souls of the dead home.

At Tihar, the festival of lights, doors and windows are hung with garlands of orange and yellow marigolds, and dogs and cows are garlanded too.

Theravada Buddhist monks wear robes in shades from saffron orange to ochre. Many Thai men ordain for a short time, so the robe is a familiar sight in most families.

The yellow disc of the Aboriginal flag is the sun, giver of life. The flag was designed by the Luritja artist Harold Thomas and first flown in Adelaide in 1971.

Men wear a long scarf, the kabney, on formal occasions, and its colour shows rank. Saffron yellow is kept for the King and the Je Khenpo, the chief abbot.

Many First Nations use the medicine wheel, a circle in four parts. A common form has yellow, red, black and white quarters for the four directions, though the colours vary between nations.

Yellow is the colour of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, patron of Cuba, and of Ochun, the Santeria spirit of rivers and love. Pilgrims bring her sunflowers.

In Maya thought each direction has a colour: red for east, white for north, black for west and yellow for south. They match the four colours of maize.

People wear yellow for Vasant Panchami, the spring festival of the goddess Saraswati. Before many weddings, turmeric paste is rubbed on the bride and groom in the haldi ceremony.

The flag is yellow and white, for the gold and silver keys of Saint Peter. It is one of only two square national flags.

The Thursday before Easter is called Green Thursday. By custom people eat something green, such as spinach or herbs, and some pubs serve green beer.

The flag is half green and half white with a red crescent and star. The green stands for Islam and the white for peace.

In ancient Egypt green meant new growth and life after death. Osiris, god of the dead and of rebirth, was painted with green skin.

The ancient Maya prized green above all colours. Jade and the long green tail feathers of the quetzal were kept for kings. The quetzal is the national bird and gives the currency its name.

Green flags fly over the Shia shrines of Najaf and Karbala. Green is tied to the family of the Prophet, and pilgrims tie strips of green cloth to the grilles of tombs.

The flag is green, white and red. The green is linked with Islam, and the phrase Allahu Akbar is written in white along the edges of the green and red bands.

A green cedar tree stands at the centre of the flag. The cedars of Lebanon are named in the Bible and stand for holiness, endurance and peace.

Green is the colour of Islam. The roofs of mosques and of the shrines of saints, such as the Moulay Idriss shrine in Fes, are covered in green glazed tiles.

Green is the colour of Islam, the religion of the federation, and of the Islamic party PAS, whose flag is a white circle on green.

Strings of Buddhist prayer flags come in five colours in a fixed order: blue for sky, white for air, red for fire, green for water and yellow for earth.

Pounamu, greenstone, is found only in the South Island. Maori carve it into pendants such as the hei-tiki, which are treasures handed down through families and are usually given, not bought for oneself.

The dark green of the flag stands for the Muslim majority. The crescent on it is for progress and the star for light and knowledge.

The flag is green with the Muslim declaration of faith and a sword in white. Because of the sacred text it is never flown at half mast.

The flag is green, yellow and red with a green star. Green is read as the colour of the Prophet by Muslims, of hope by Christians and of fertility by followers of older religions.

The flag is green with a white crescent and five stars. Down the hoist runs a red band with five carpet patterns, one for each of the main tribes.

Green is linked with Islam and with holy men. Tombs of saints are draped in green cloth, and the Green Mosque and Green Tomb in Bursa are named for their tiles.

At Pentecost, called the Green Holidays, homes and churches are decked with birch branches and sweet-smelling herbs spread on the floor.

Turquoise, firuzeh in Persian, has been mined near Nishapur for thousands of years. It is worn against the evil eye, and its colour covers the domes of mosques in Isfahan.

In the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary wears a blue-green cloak covered in stars. Turquoise was precious to the Aztecs, who used it in mosaic masks.

The mosques and tombs of Samarkand are faced with turquoise and deep blue tiles. The three great madrasas of the Registan square and their ribbed turquoise domes are the best known.

Lapis lazuli has been mined in the mountains of Badakhshan for more than six thousand years. Ground to powder it gave ultramarine, the costliest blue in European painting.

Light blue and white are the colours of Iemanja, the sea goddess of Candomble and Umbanda. On 2 February in Salvador her followers send flowers and gifts out to sea.

Ancient craftsmen made Egyptian blue, one of the first synthetic pigments, and blue-glazed faience for amulets. Blue stood for the sky and the Nile.

Before green took over, blue was the colour tied to Ireland and its patron saint. A shade called Saint Patrick's blue is still used on the President's flag behind the gold harp.

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.

Krishna, Rama and Vishnu are painted with blue skin, the colour of the sky and the deep sea. The wheel at the centre of the national flag, the Ashoka Chakra, is navy blue.

The Ishtar Gate of Babylon, built under Nebuchadnezzar II, was faced with deep blue glazed bricks set with bulls and dragons. The blue imitated lapis lazuli.

In Maasai beadwork each colour has a meaning tied to cattle and the land. Blue is the sky that gives rain, and so the colour of Enkai, God.

The flag is sky blue with a golden sun and a steppe eagle. Blue is the colour of the open sky, sacred to the Turkic peoples as Tengri.

The khadag is a silk scarf offered as a mark of respect and tied to sacred cairns. The blue one is the most valued, for the eternal blue sky.

Maya blue is a bright, lasting pigment made by heating indigo with a special clay. Maya painters used it on murals, pottery and offerings to the rain god.

Blue and white painted tiles, azulejos, cover churches, stations and house fronts. The fashion for blue on white took hold in the late 1600s under the influence of Chinese porcelain and Dutch Delft.

The painted monastery of Voronet in Bukovina is covered in frescoes on a deep blue ground. The shade is known as Voronet blue.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul is known as the Blue Mosque. The name comes from the thousands of Iznik tiles and painted patterns, mostly blue, that cover the inside.

In Holy Week, members of religious brotherhoods walk in procession in robes and pointed hoods, many of them purple, the colour of penance. A purple band also marked the flag of the Second Republic.

October is the purple month. Followers of the Lord of Miracles, a painting of Christ in Lima, wear purple habits with a white cord all month and walk in vast processions.

Bishops wear a red-purple shade called amaranth. Priests wear violet vestments in Advent and Lent, the seasons of waiting and penance.

Buddhist nuns, called thilashin, shave their heads and wear pale pink robes with an orange or brown under-robe.

Masi is bark cloth beaten from paper mulberry and printed in brown and black. It is worn at weddings and funerals and given in ceremonial exchanges.

Bogolanfini, or mud cloth, is cotton painted with fermented river mud in browns, black and white. Hunters wear it for protection, and women after childbirth.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Xhosa boys going through initiation into manhood cover their bodies in white clay while they live apart from the village. It is washed off when they return as men.

In Bali, a black and white chequered cloth called poleng is wrapped around statues, shrines and large trees. It shows the balance of opposites and marks a place as guarded.

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.

For Ashura and Arbaeen, millions of pilgrims walk to Karbala dressed in black, and black banners for Imam Husayn line the roads.

In 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.

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa is an icon of Mary and the child Jesus with darkened faces. It is the most revered image in the country, and pilgrims walk for days to see it.

The Kaaba in Mecca is covered by the kiswah, a black silk cloth with verses of the Quran worked in gold and silver thread. A new one is made every year.

The Muisca made offerings of gold figures to the gods at Lake Guatavita. The ritual of a new ruler covered in gold dust gave rise to the legend of El Dorado.

The ancient Egyptians held that the flesh of the gods was gold, which never tarnishes. Royal coffins and masks, like Tutankhamun's, were made of it.