Nothing gets you in the holiday spirit like bright lights and colorful decor — but what do the different colors of each holiday mean?
When you take a moment to think of the most festive times of the year, you likely have some ingrained associations or traditions that specifically relate to colors, symbols, and lighting. This guide explains which colors traditionally represent which holidays and why, starting with the most-celebrated ones across the world, and looking at some uniquely American ones. From Christmas to St Patrick’s Day, there are a variety of these associations surrounding our favorite times of the year.
Christmas Lights and Colors
This holiday is second only to the New Year in terms of how many people around the world celebrate it. As such, it has some of the most recognized colors of any holiday. It is celebrated on December 25 every year. While America has its own Christmas traditions, many countries have their own ways of celebrating. The Philippines hosts The Giant Lantern Festival every year on the Saturday before Christmas Eve in the city of San Fernando. Toronto celebrates the holiday by holding their annual Cavalcade of Lights in which LED lights shine from dusk until 11pm until the New Year.
Although modern celebrations and décor mix things up and fashion-forward revelers may break with tradition, Christmas is almost universally associated with red and green. Many people celebrate Christmas by stringing up colorful lights across their home, inside and outside.
Why Are Christmas Lights and Colors Typically Red and Green?
Even though there are so many Christmas lights to choose from, why is it that red and green are always the colors we associate the holiday with? Some believe this color tradition began because of the red berries and green leaves of the plant holly. Holly is able to survive under freezing winter temperatures and the plant’s colors stay bright throughout the winter season. Some consider these colors to have a religious connotation with the holiday, as red is often associated with the symbols of life and blood throughout the Bible.
Valentine’s Day Lights and Colors
This romantic holiday is celebrated every year on February 14, in which couples celebrate their love for one another. The holiday actually has a surprisingly dark history, in which the Romans would celebrate the feast of Lupercalia from February 13th to the 15th. During this feast, men would practice some horrifying rituals, including sacrificing a goat and a dog and wiping women the hides of animals they just killed.
The color scheme of this holiday is red, white and pink. Traditionally, the color red is most prominently used in Valentine’s Day celebrations because of its association with passion, desire and love.
What the Colors of Valentine’s Day Mean
The color red is known to represent love and life and the color white is seen to symbolize purity. The color pink is the result of combining red and white together, creating a fusion of love and purity. Couples can get in the spirit of the holiday by hanging up Valentine’s Day lights and decorations.
Easter Lights and Colors
This holiday often has religious connotations associated with it, as it entails a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is celebrated on a Sunday between March and April every year. Lilies, the symbolic flower of the Easter season, are delivered often on this day. Over the years, many Easter movies have been made to celebrate this holiday, from “Easter Parade” to “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.”
There are over a dozen colors associated with this holiday, including red, silver, green and purple. Kids traditionally dye eggs this color before an Easter egg hunt. All of these pastel colors represent the spring season, accompany the day’s festivities and have their own meaning associated with them.
What the Colors of Easter Mean
Red is associated with the blood that Jesus shed, royal blue symbolizes the birth of Jesus and orange represents hope. These are just a few of the many colors associated with the Easter holiday. Many families celebrate the holiday by putting up Easter lights around their house.
St. Patrick’s Day Lights and Colors
This Irish holiday is held on March 17 every year and is a celebration of Irish heritage. The date of March 17 marks the death of Saint Patrick, known as the patron saint of Ireland. Corn beef and cabbage has become a staple meal eaten during this holiday and originated because many Irish Americans were too poor to afford certain meals when they first arrived to the U.S. Dyeing the river green also became a tradition after people in Chicago began to do so. In 1962, Chicago’s city officials decided to dye a portion of the Chicago river green, thus the tradition was born.
Green is the primary color of the holiday. But many also use white and orange colors in their St. Patrick’s Day celebrations because they are the other two colors of Ireland’s flag, along with green. There are a variety of St. Patrick’s Day lights to choose from for all your decorating needs.
What the Colors of St. Patrick’s Day Mean
According to TIME, blue is actually believed to have been associated with Ireland before green was. Green has become a symbol of Irish heritage and dates back to the 19th century when Irish immigrants came to America to find jobs and wore green to represent their home country. Green has also been associated with the desire for luck and wealth.
Fourth of July Lights and Colors
This American holiday celebrates our independence and our freedom as a nation. America’s 13 colonies claimed their independence from England on July 4, 1776, which led to the founding of the U.S. This is why the Fourth of July is also known as Independence Day.
The colors of this holiday are red, white and blue. It is an exclusively American holiday that’s celebrated traditionally with fireworks, BBQs and parades. Many families use Fourth of July lights to make their home as patriotic as possible.
What the Colors of Fourth of July Mean
The colors of this holiday represent the stripes of the American flag and patriotism. These colors were chosen to demonstrate our country’s values. White is used to symbolize innocence and purity, red represents hardiness and valor, while blue is meant to show vigilance, justice and perseverance in our country.
Halloween Lights and Colors
This spooky holiday takes place every year on October 31 and originates from the ancient festival of Samhain, in which people wore costumes and lit bonfires to keep ghosts away. Carved pumpkins became a tradition from the Irish folk legend Jack O’Lantern. The tale goes that a local drunkard named Jack trapped the devil himself in a tree and he had to vow to Satan to never claim his soul. The lit pumpkins are meant to represent Jack’s soul, burning in the devil’s possession.
Orange is the most known color associated with this holiday but other colors are paired with Halloween too such as black, purple, white and green. Orange and black are two of the most dominant Halloween colors and are often paired with each other. These two colors act as opposites, as the orange represents the color of the autumn leaves and pumpkins outside while the black shows the darkness of the holiday.
What the Colors of Halloween Mean
Orange is known to represent a celebration of life while black symbolizes the opposite. Red represents the color of blood, purple symbolizes witchcraft and green represents monsters and slime. Using Halloween lights can add another level of spookiness to your home and get your whole family in the spirit.
LightBulbs.com has holiday lights for any celebration you have!
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