Hoard of Culture: Red. Red. Red.

With Valentine's Day coming up, there's a lot of red out there. It's such a bold, rich, gorgeous color, and also happens to be my very favorite. It occurs in all sorts of ways in nature, there are red rocks, fruits, vegetables, flowers, gems, foxes, birds, pandas, coral, fish, bugs, nebula...There's red wine, lips, nails, hair and candy. So many gorgeous shades of red. Whether red is bright or dark makes a difference concerning what it represents. Bright red is the color of fire, blood, heat and power, and is a symbol of the life force. Throughout Asia, bright red is a lucky color. Buddhists consider it the color of activity and creativity. In Japan only women and children wear bright red. It also appears on flags, stop signs and emergency buttons, indicating danger. Some consider it the color of lust and seduction. Bright red is also the color of love, romance, passion, youth, beauty and emotion. A red faced person is one who is angry or embarrassed. Dark red, on the other hand, is seen as the red of spiritual initiation, of forbidden esoteric knowledge, of the blood inside the womb, of the fire inside the earth, and of the mysteries of life. It is the color of the soul and the heart.