Luck on Chinese New Years, love on Valentine’s Day, left-wing ideologies in Communism…the color red is strongly symbolic. You’ve probably been seeing a lot of red this week, so here’s a little background to the color.

Chinese love the color red – they practically paint their walls with it on Chinese New Years. Red symbolizes many good things – luck, life, joy, nobility. The word for color “yan se” originally meant facial color, and, like a flush of the cheeks, red symbolizes vitality. The ancient Chinese believed in five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth) and each was associated with a color, red being fire. The imperial dynasties selected one of these colors to correspond with their rule; red became a color of royalty.

This year, the year of the snake, Chinese New Years began on Sunday. Many students probably went home this weekend to collect their “hong bao” or “lai see,” a red envelope of money that the elderly or married couples gift children or unmarried young adults.

Chinese New Years is typically celebrated for fifteen days, ending on a full moon. The last day is is celebrated with a lantern festival and fireworks, and is sometimes referred to as the Chinese Valentine’s Day. Traditionally on this day unmarried girls were allowed to go unescorted to meet bachelors.

Red is also associated with revolution and socialism, but this association did not originate in China. Red became a symbol of revolution during the French Revolution when the rebellion donned red Phrygian caps (Phrygian caps signified liberty during the Roman Empire) called bonnet rouge. In Russia, after Red October, Lenin organized his Red Army. As in China, red symbolized positive things in Russia. The word for red “krasni” was traditionally used to mean “beautiful.”

And, of course, in a much less political sense, red is the color of Valentine’s Day! Its romantic connotation likely comes from the rose, which has long been a symbol of love. The word “rose” itself means red. In Roman mythology, the red rose is the favorite flower of the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus. A popular French poem “Roman de la Rose” about a man searching for a single red rose in a garden (an allegory for the search for love) re-enforced the symbolism of the red rose during the Middle Ages. During the Victorian era roses became a popular Valentine’s day gift. A single red rose now embodies the words “I love you.”

So whether or not you are celebrating Chinese New Years, the Communist Party, or Valentine’s Day, don a little bit of red today. It’s a powerful color in its brightness and meaning.

P.S. Another way to incorporate “red” into your day:

Use the phrase ”in the red” to refer to the debt you’re in after splurging on your dinner date, “paint the town red” to mean party hard if you’re single, and “red letter day” to refer to the awesome time you had at the San Francisco Pillow Fight.

(Sources)

http://www.pureinsight.org/node/4096

http://www.aijcrnet.com/journals/Vol_1_No_3_November_2011/13.pdf

http://www.ibtimes.com/why-color-red-associated-communism-295185

http://www.romancestuck.com/ideas/rose-symbolism.htm#sthash.UFalpbcs.dpbs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red#Symbolism

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