Facts About the Colour Purple:

Royalty, nobility, luxury and ambition are all associated with the colour purple. But what other facts do we know about this magical colour?

1. Originally, the colour purple came from a dye made from the mucus glands of a tropical sea snail known as the murex.
2. The murex’s Latin name is purpura, which is where we get the word purple from.
3. Because purple dye was so difficult to obtain and expensive to produce, the colour became the royal colour in many parts of the world and is traditionally associated with royalty and power.
4. In Japan, the colour purple signifies wealth and position.
5. Purple is the hardest colour for the eye to distinguish.
6. Carrots used to be purple – as well as red, white, yellow and of coarse orange.
7. Purple symbolizes the gay community in many Western cultures.
8. The Archbishop of Cyprus is allowed to sign official papers in purple ink.
9. The film Purple Rain, released in 1984, won an Oscar for the Best Original Song Score.
10. A film called The Color Purple, which was released in 1985, received 11 Oscar nominations, however it didn’t win a single award.
11. Purple is the colour for epilepsy awareness because of it’s association with lavender, which is a traditional herbal treatment for the disease.
12. 26th March is Purple Day, which is a day where people dress in purple and raise awareness for Epilepsy.
13. Purple Day was created in 2008 by Cassidy Megan, a nine year-old Canadian.
14. If you’re born “in the purple” you are born of high or a noble birth.
15. Forbidden City in Beijing, China is actually called “The Purple Forbidden City”, which is a reference to a secret purple area in heaven, thought to be centered somewhere near the North Star.
16. You may have heard the “fact” that nothing rhymes with the word purple, this is incorrect. Curple is a strap under the girth of a horse’s saddle, which stops the saddle from kicking forward. Hirple is to walk with a limp and Nurple – which is my favourite one, is the act of roughly twisting a nipple!
17. Samuel L. Jackson said that he would only play Mace Windu in Star Wars if he had a purple lightsaber!
18. Dominica is the only nation on Earth to use the colour purple in its flag.
19. In the garden, the perfect complimentary colour to purple is yellow
20. The Purple Finch is the State bird of New Hampshire.