Different colours symbolize different qualities but because of varied cultures around the world, sometimes the same colour can have starkly different meanings across nations. For instance, let us take the example of the colour yellow. In India, the colour yellow is related to joy and is worn to celebrate the festival of spring. This is in sharp contrast to Egypt and Burma, where yellow stands for mourning. It seems that the colour is generally associated with negative annotations, as in earlier times the executioners in Spain wore yellow, while in France, the doors of traitors and criminals houses were painted yellow.

The colour blue is the world's most loved colour, if researches are to be believed, but it seems that witches are not particularly fond of this colour! It is said that witches dislike the colour blue and because of this, the colour is worn as defence against witches. This derivation could have originated with the fact that witches are often considered evil, whereas the colour blue is associated with positive qualities like loyalty, faithfulness, relaxation, freedom and love.

Who does not know the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra? But what most of us might not know is her fetish for the colour purple. Purple, a royal colour in those times was a symbol of authority and rank, and was deeply loved by Cleopatra. Her love for the colour bordered on such extremes that she went to great lengths to obtain it. To be precise, for obtaining an ounce of the purple dye she had to have her servants soak 20,000 Purpura Snails for 10 days! Interestingly, purple was also one of the most difficult colours to obtain, making it inaccessible to the masses. Only those with proper means could afford to obtain it. No wonder only Queen Cleopatra had the luxury to have the colour adorn her beautiful frame.

Different colours symbolize different qualities but because of varied cultures around the world, sometimes the same colour can have starkly different meanings across nations. For instance, let us take the example of the colour yellow. In India, the colour yellow is related to joy and is worn to celebrate the festival of spring. This is in sharp contrast to Egypt and Burma, where yellow stands for mourning. It seems that the colour is generally associated with negative annotations, as in earlier times the executioners in Spain wore yellow, while in France, the doors of traitors and criminals houses were painted yellow.

The colour blue is the world's most loved colour, if researches are to be believed, but it seems that witches are not particularly fond of this colour! It is said that witches dislike the colour blue and because of this, the colour is worn as defence against witches. This derivation could have originated with the fact that witches are often considered evil, whereas the colour blue is associated with positive qualities like loyalty, faithfulness, relaxation, freedom and love.

Who does not know the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra? But what most of us might not know is her fetish for the colour purple. Purple, a royal colour in those times was a symbol of authority and rank, and was deeply loved by Cleopatra. Her love for the colour bordered on such extremes that she went to great lengths to obtain it. To be precise, for obtaining an ounce of the purple dye she had to have her servants soak 20,000 Purpura Snails for 10 days! Interestingly, purple was also one of the most difficult colours to obtain, making it inaccessible to the masses. Only those with proper means could afford to obtain it. No wonder only Queen Cleopatra had the luxury to have the colour adorn her beautiful frame.