flohaus

When I was very young, there was a young boy named, Zuto, (the “Z” is pronounced as a soft “G” as in “garage”) which means yellow in Croatian.  An older girl told me that Zuto was a weak name and meant that he was a coward, so I better stay away from him. Funny the things you remember.

Like “yellow bellied” or “yellow” , which describes a coward.  It also describes someone who is sickly or jaundiced. Yellow is the colour of mourning in Egypt and actors of the Middle Ages wore yellow to signify the dead…..”Bring out your dead” (for Monty Python fans). Yellow means courage in Japan and merchants in India.

As I sit here eating my Key Lime pie, one of my favourites (Lemon Meringue is a very close second), I instantly think of summer, sunshine, happiness, joy, peace.  I think of the Beatles “Yellow Submarine”, Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” and Coldplay’s “Yellow”.  It is the yellow ribbon that gets tied “around an old oak tree”, that signifies hope for loved ones to return from war.  It is also the colour of caution or yield and is the colour between red (stop) and green (go), used for traffic lights.

In Feng Shui, yellow is the colour used to represent the earth element and is placed in 3 sectors of the home; the centre of the home, which represents health, the northeast which represents knowledge and southwest which represents romance, love and good marriage.  And it is also the producing colour of the element fire. So if you want to improve your love life, success with exams or your health, add a bit of yellow to the areas in your home just mentioned.

Pantone’s colour of the year for 2010 is Mimosa, Pantone 14-0848. The very similar colour of Michelle Obama’s inaugural dress last fall.  “Mimosa Embodies Hopefulness and Reassurance in a Climate of Change”.

What do you feel when you see the colour yellow?  Send in your pictures and I’ll post them at the end of the week.

Cheers!