Costume stores will be stocked with creepy green teeth, shocking orange hair, and ugly black fingernails and toenails. In any case, for many folks, Halloween is a night to enjoy being properly scared, and a bit of color used here and there will heighten the suspense and the fun for all. Because of these grim associations, the Celts held the belief that the night before the new year, the worlds of the living and dead became blurred. They celebrated Samhain the night of October 31, the date when ghosts were believed to come back from the dead. We take a look at seven different colors, how they relate to Halloween and what they represent.
In the early 20th century, some Halloween postcards would have witches in red or purple dresses and Jack-o’-lanterns in green colors. The second major color of the traditional Halloween orange and black color theme is the color of the jack-o’-lantern or pumpkin. The carved pumpkins takuache hats with names are a common feature of Halloween banner ads and decorations and this makes orange a big part of the Halloween color palette. Orange also represents the fall season when Halloween takes place and represents fire or warmth which contrasts the darkness and spooky nature.
Good Housekeeping participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. When they got to America, they used pumpkins instead and that is how the tradition of carving pumpkins for Halloween was started. On November 2nd which is just a few days after Halloween on October 31st, the Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico. At this festival, offerings of food and drink were left for the spirits or souls of the dead.
Or, at the very least, impress friends and family with some usefulHalloween trivia. Like trick-or-treaters and haunted houses, the color combination of black and orange is instantly synonymous with Halloween. Every October these hues start to pop up in the form of lawn decorations, costumes, and candy offerings at the grocery store, signaling the start of the spookiest season of the year.
“Black does indeed likely come from black cats, although bats contributed to that as well,” Morton said. I actually posted a flyer from the website next to my teal pumpkin the first couple years to let my neighbors know about the program. White is often used with Halloween stripes, polka dots, zig zags and other fun designs. Recently, white has also slid into the Halloween arena, frequently being used in decor and upscale decorating themes.
This bright color is what counteracted the more sinister nature of Halloween that black represented. Of course, orange and black represent a large majority of the spooky spirit. But black itself is probably the most impressive of all Halloween colors. We can imagine not all of these colors for Halloween are so obvious.
Turns out, there is—and it has to do with the history behind the holiday of Halloween, too. With the pumpkins being one of the biggest symbols for the celebration, we understand why orange is the main color for this holiday. Orange also represents harvest and the fires that used to burn during the Gaelic festival. Those fires were used to light the town and ward off evil spirits that were thought to be lingering around.
This means they go great together, so it’s no surprise designers are happy to combine these colors every chance they get. I am here claiming that teal is quickly becoming one of the new Halloween colors. Depending on where you live, you may have noticed Teal pumpkins popping up at homes and even in stores over the last few years.
The festival developed as a precursor to the new year, which for Celts began on November 1 and anticipated the beginning of long, cold winters that would result in many deaths. In a study that asked people to indicate their emotional responses to five principle hues , the positive aspect of purple was largely tied to children and laughter. With this in mind, the introduction of purple to Halloween may be tied to the evolution of the commercialism of the holiday. Red is a powerful Halloween color because blood represents life and mortality. While the color red on its own is known for intensity and aggression, the symbolism may be slightly different as a Halloween color. The color green has also been used to represent the supernatural with green glowing fog, floating mists, flashes of light and other effects.
