Blue Moon, blue ribbon, but I bet you haven't heard about our BLUE carpet

What is new at Peartree Languages? I am wondering how many of you have spotted that there is a new carpet at school? Yes, we do have a new carpet and it is BLUE!

So our colour choice got us thinking and we have decided that this week's blog post is going to be about the colour blue, the meanings of blue in different cultures or even some English idioms including the colour blue, or the 'color' blue as our American friends would spell it.

The meanings of blue are very often associated with serenity, calm and spirituality. Apparently, for some people, blue can sometimes bring your mind to sadness and loneliness. That is the reason why I actually do not have anything blue in the house and as my mum says, blue is a very cold color as well.

Blue is one of the most people's favorite color especially for men. For many the darker shades such as navy blue, are thought of as ultra-masculine, associated with success, authority and corporate color meanings.

But what can be positive meanings of blue color? I don't know if you have similar feelings from blue, but it can be a color of spirituality and faith, cleanliness, fresh air, trust and security, intelligence, confidence, technology and futurism, or success and power. On the other side, it also can have negative meanings as sadness, depression, cold (mum was right), chilling, formal, immoral, old-fashioned and conservatism.

Obviously every color has different meanings in different cultures and blue is not an exception. So apparently in Christianity the Madonna is usually clothed in blue as a symbol of virtue, in the Jewish faith blue is the color of holiness. Blue is the color of God Krishna in Hinduism and in China it represents immortality. Also blue was the color of Philosophers in Ancient Rome and they dressed themselves to show their rank.

As far as I remember, in Venezuela dark blue is the color of architects and when you finish  school and you get the diploma, you should be given a ring with a stone of this color, so then people can recognize your rank.

In Japan the colour blue has a very natural meaning and is often used in art or clothing and symbolizes the vast ocean surrounding the islands. I don't think that the colour blue is very popular in Germany, as they issue a blue color paper if a company wants to dismiss or just fire somebody and the letter is known as 'Blaue Briefe'.

In France deep blue is strongly associated with Royalty and Aristocracy and even in my country we say that people like this have blue blood. Blue is probably not popular in Iran too as it is the color of mourning, in Slovakia it is black of purple.

If we talk about English Idioms, even though the colour blue is usually used in the meaning of sadness- Feeling blue refers to being sad or depressed. But lets talk about the more positive side of the blue color. A blue ribbon is usually awarded to the winner of various types of competitions.

If something happens very infrequently we say it takes place 'Once in a Blue Moon'. When an unexpected event takes place, we say it came 'Out of the Blue' and also we can' forget that our planet Earth is called the 'Blue Planet' because of its oceans.

I think we could go on and on about the colour blue as it can mean something different in every culture. But please feel free to comment the blog and tell us what the color means in your country, religion or culture.

Source: http://color-wheel-artist.com/meanings-of-blue.html

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About Peartree Languages

Peartree Languages is a language school located in Cardiff.