In this part of the research I am going to focus on the color purple in different religions and what it is representing.
I am going to start with Christianity, because this religion is the closest to me, therefore I may have some knowledge around the subject.
Color purple has a lot of meaning in Roman Catholic church. "Worn during the Advent and Lent seasons, purple reflects sorrow and suffering" (Sector, 2016). It also is worn during Advent to represent the waiting. Not the waiting for Christmas, but the time and anticipation of meeting God again when he returns.
Color purple is used in Catholic church to remind people to reflect. It also shows the seriousness and sadness getting people ready for meeting God. Color purple is often also associated with Virgin Mary, although on most paintings she is appearing in blue or red robes, there are images presenting her in purple as well. For example:
Color purple is often associated with the moment of Annunciation in the bible, also shown on multiple art pieces. This color is is representing the waiting that I have mentioned earlier, but also it stands for Mary's purity and why she was chosen.
This piece represents exactly what I have mentioned earlier, Virgin Mary shown very pure in the purple robes. The angel is also wearing purple because they both are waiting, what is presented is the time for reflection, and the anticipation to meet God. I think it can be similar for the reasons why priests are wearing purple robes in Advent. It is the time people are waiting for the God to come, and in the time before Christ, they waited in exactly the same way, the believers are waiting in now.
Even though I have mentioned just the Catholic church, the meaning of the color purple is the same in protestant churches as well, so I am able to summarize that in Christianity color purple is representing the reflection, sorrow and suffering and the time of waiting.
Now, I am going to look at Islam. Islam is a religion that is not very well known to me, therefore I needed to look more in depth, because I generally do not have any knowledge or understanding of this religion and its symbols in colors.
In Muslim culture, color purple can be associated with Ramadan. Ramadan is a month where Muslims are fasting and avoiding things that can be not pure for their minds and bodies (Muslim Hands, 2021). Now, I can look more into why it can be associated with color purple and what are the references behind it.
Purple is a color often associated with twilight, and that is when people break their fast during Ramadan (Aman, 2021). I decided to go online and find colors of twilight to understand better how is that associated with Ramadan.
I can see now how that can remind people of the feast at twilight during Ramadan. The sky is certainly very purple and I can see how that would be connected with the muslim holiday.
"Purple represents mystery. Ramadan certainly has an air of mystery; for example the exact date of Night of Power each year is an intentional mystery" (Aman, 2021). I have already talked about how color purple often stands for mystery, but I did not know it had support in Islam. I think it is very interesting that for the people who follow the Local Moon Sighting Method, the date of Ramadan is unclear until the night before. I think it is truly mysterious and interesting to think about.
As I have already mentioned before, I want the mystery to be somewhere in the concept of my cartoon. Mystery is something children like and to be completely honest, not only children. Seeing how purple is connected to Ramadan because of the mystery around it, creates more depth to it in my opinion.
Ramadan is also a time where people concentrate on their connection with Allah and spirituality. Here, color purple is once again connected to the spirituality and connection that is beyond human. Once again I am observing how all those characteristics repeat themselves in different things I am researching. It indeed is really interesting to me and it gives me more ideas of how particular characteristics can be understood, for example here Ramadan is connected to mystery because some parts of it are unclear, not because there is some sort of riddle or a puzzle to solve.
Another religion I decided to look at is Judaism. In Judaism what I found is important is that color purple is a mixture of red and blue. I have already mentioned in a previous post that it is interesting to look at how this color is made, because red is a very hot color and blue is exactly opposite of it, which creates purple, purple is a neutral color when it comes to its warmth, it depends more on its shade. "In the Jewish tradition red symbolizes sin and blue represents the glorification of God, and when the two combine to form purple the meaning is transformed into one of redemption and purification." (Echolls, 2017).
To understand it better, I think it is helpful to literally imagine those two colors mixing in a bowl. One meaning sin and the other meaning glorification of God. When mixed together it creates the process of purification and redemption, so here, once again we have a reference to purity.
That made me think, how can I visualize the word PURITY. How can that be an image, how can I create a character that would be just insanely pure from the outside that a person would immediately think that this character is pure.
When I think about the word purity myself, I think of something light in both of this word's meanings, therefore something not heavy and something not dark. It is clear, not cluttered and young. This is what comes into my mind when I think about purity and I think that is a direction that would be interesting to take.
What I have learned from this research is that the mystery referred by color purple, can be understood in many different ways. I have also learned that this color represents purity in some religions and I think it is an interesting route I could possibly take. Another think I have not thought about, is the twilight and how it is always presented by the color purple. This could tie well with the idea of triggering other sensations with just visuals. For example when I think of twilight, I do not only think about pretty sky, but I also think about how chilly the air is getting there and I can feel it more. This goes with the idea of ting sensations with visuals and I think it is a great idea actually.
Good post - I didn't know that red and blue were used that way in the Jewish faith and then combined - really interesting. I was a bit concerned that focusing so much on the religious aspect of the colour purple was going down the wrong route for this project until the last paragraph when you started to talk about the sensations the colour evokes in you and others. If this is intended as a way of giving certain characters in your project a specific personality then that is a positive.
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