Live, Saturday, 3 October 2026
The world in colour today
What the world is wearing, lighting, throwing and painting right now: the festivals and remembrances under way, the colours of the weekday, and one colour to get to know.
Being worn and shown today
Pink October (Breast Cancer Awareness Month)
October has been Breast Cancer Awareness Month since 1985, and since the early 1990s it has been pink. The pink ribbon was spread in 1992 by Self magazine and the cosmetics company Estée Lauder, which handed out more than a million of them. A Californian woman, Charlotte Haley, had earlier made peach-coloured ribbons by hand to press for more research money, and declined to work with the magazine. Pink was chosen as a colour widely read as feminine, gentle and hopeful. Today buildings from the Eiffel Tower to the Sydney Opera House are lit pink, and sports teams play in pink. Critics use the word pinkwashing for companies that sell pink products while giving little to the cause.
German Unity Day
On 3 October 1990 East and West Germany were joined again. The day is kept quietly, with a public festival hosted each year by a different federal state. Its colours are those of the flag: black, red and gold. They are usually traced to the uniforms of volunteers who fought Napoleon in 1813, black coats with red trim and brass buttons. Students and liberals took up the three colours, carried them at the Hambach Festival of 1832 and made them the flag of the 1848 parliament. They became the colours of the democratic republics of 1919 and 1949, and both German states used them through the Cold War. The third band is always called gold, never yellow.
Saturday is purple (Thailand)
Saturday is the day of Phra Sao, the god of the planet Saturn, and its colour is purple; older lists give black. Queen Suthida was born on a Saturday, so purple flags fly for her birthday on 3 June. Saturday's Buddha image sits in meditation, sheltered by the hood of the serpent king Naga. The full set of seven colours is taught to Thai children as a rhyme, and is still visible in small ways: in the shirts some offices and schools ask staff to wear on certain days, in the colour of flags for royal birthdays, and in the cloth tied round sacred trees and spirit houses.
Saturday for Shani: black and dark blue
Saturday, Shanivar, belongs to Shani, the planet Saturn, a slow, stern god who is said to hand out the results of one's actions. His colours are black and dark blue, and his image is usually black stone. On Saturdays people pour mustard oil over it and offer black sesame seeds, black urad dal and iron, and many wear black or navy to please him. Others take the opposite view and avoid buying black things, iron or oil on a Saturday so as not to bring Shani's attention home. Black is otherwise avoided at most Hindu ceremonies, which makes its place on Saturday unusual. Custom varies by region and family.
Colour of the day
Coming up in the next 30 days
In 8 days, 11 to 20 Oct 2026NavratriNine nights, nine colours: a different colour to wear each day, and mirrored skirts whirling in the garba.
In 8 days, 11 to 25 Oct 2026DashainA red tika of rice and vermilion on the forehead and yellow barley shoots behind the ear, given by elders in Nepal.
In 12 days, 15 Oct 2026Spirit DayPurple, taken from the stripe of the rainbow flag that stands for spirit, worn in support of bullied LGBTQ young people.
In 13 days, 16 to 21 Oct 2026Durga PujaWhite saris with a broad red border, red sindoor smeared on cheeks on the last day, and feet edged in red alta.
In 26 days, 29 Oct 2026Karva ChauthMarried women in bridal red, with red bangles, dark henna and sindoor, fasting until the moon rises.
In 28 days, 31 Oct 2026HalloweenOrange and black: pumpkins and firelight against the dark, with ghost white, purple and slime green added later.
In 29 days, 1 to 2 Nov 2026All Saints' and All Souls' DaysWhite in church for the saints, then graveyards glowing with candles and heaped with chrysanthemums.
In 29 days, 1 to 2 Nov 2026Day of the DeadPaths of orange marigold petals to lead the dead home, purple and pink cut paper, and white sugar skulls.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Sinopia: Joanbanjo, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Navratri: Mukerjee, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dashain: Unknown author, CC0, source
- Durga Puja: Subhrajyoti07, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Karva Chauth: Iamwiki001, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Halloween: Toby Ord, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- All Saints And All Souls: Fra Angelico, Public domain, source
- Day Of The Dead: RubeHM, CC BY-SA 4.0, source