What Word Rhymes with Orange? (A World of Color, Day Three)

Note: This is part 3 in a series of posts titled A World of Color. You can read the previous posts here: Introduction and Red.

I suppose I should explain a bit about the reason for these posts. Besides the fact that it was fun to hunt down color-themed photos, I have been interested since college (where I completed a youth counseling major and had to take various psychology classes) as to the meaning of colors. It only takes a moment of thinking for us to understand how color can evoke emotion and influence our thoughts (for example, think of the colors red and green together...what do you think of? or perhaps if you were an Iraqi, and you saw the colors red, white, and blue....might that cause some emotion within you?). But we don't always give much active thought to color's meaning. So I am using these posts to examine some of those. I hope you find it interesting as I have.



If red is a sweltering summer day with 100% humidity, orange is a pleasantly-warm day with a nice breeze blowing through. Orange is energetic but not overbearing. Created by mixing red and yellow, it holds some of the passion of red but mixes in the happiness of yellow. It is a color of transition, seen both in the changing leaves of autumn and the pumpkins of Halloween, signaling that summer is over and winter is approaching.

Interestingly, researchers have discovered that the use of the color orange actually has a physical effect upon its viewers, increasing oxygen to the brain, stimulating mental activity, appetite, and digestion. It is considered in some cultures to be a color of youth and health, no doubt influenced by its appearance in the skin of citrus fruits. In medieval times, it represented strength and endurance. But some places consider dark orange to be the color of deception.

Some Native American groups use orange to represent learning and kinship. And it can be the color of flamboyance. On a personal note, I have found it interesting that I tend to gravitate to orange clothing, and receive more compliments when wearing orange than most any other color; then while researching this post, I discovered that orange is the color associated with Leos, which is my sign.



If you have a few minutes and want to try something interesting, take this quiz (click on graphic):



You have to wait a couple minutes between the two rounds for the most accurate results, but I found the results to be very interesting, painfully accurate in fact at a couple points (enough that I don't really want to share the results here!).

Orange you glad you get to look at more pictures?....