Happy Halloween! Or All Hallows’ Eve, All-Halloween or Samhain even.
However you refer to 31st of October, you can be sure that the colour orange will be part of the celebrations, indeed it’s the only time of year that you can safely say that orange is ‘in’. Yellow and blue are associated with Easter, red and green for Christmas, but orange? It belongs to the festival that traditionally marks the end of summer and the beginning of winter.
So why orange? Well, it’s the quintessential colour of autumn, think of leaves changing colour, ripened corn in the fields, harvest festivals and the warmth of a blazing fire.
Orange can be a marmite colour, you either love it or can do without it. Personally, I’m a fan; to me it represents energy, vitality and good health, all attributes essential to get us through the dark winter months ahead.
It’s fortunate then that there’s plenty of orange material to go around at this time of year. There are all the Cucurbits: pumpkins, squash, gourds, plus plenty of flowers and plants too; Physalis and Sandersonia with their delicate Chinese lanterns, burnt orange Chrysanthemums, vibrant Alstroemeria, Kalanchoe, Solanum and Rudbeckia.
On the colour wheel, orange is a secondary colour, created by mixing the primary colours of yellow and red but if pure orange is a little too much then it can be toned down by adding a touch of black and red to make terracotta or yellow for a delicate saffron. Pair it with its complementary colours on the blue spectrum and sparks really do fly!
Did you know?
Orange is the national colour of the Netherlands and a symbolic colour in Buddhism and Hinduism.
The true complement of orange is azure, which falls a quarter of the way between blue and green.
It is supposed to be impossible to rhyme the word orange with another two-syllable word…or is it?
Enjoy your flowers!
Sunflower Su
Images provided by Su Whale, funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk and floradania.dk
