Purple Fanatics and Purple Trivia

On yahoo Buzz the color purple is all the rage. There is even a purple oriented website called http://startwearingpurple.yahoo.com/ to celebrate the unique individually and personalities of the purple culture. There motto is: "How Purple Are You." People who are members wear purple shoes, clothes, and ride purple bicycles. It is much more than a club; it's a movement of sorts, not confined to an isolated group of followers, but those wishing to spread the color across the world and encourage everyone they can to wear the color. They consider themselves pioneers of sorts, of something that is more than just a fad. They're right about one thing, the significance of the color is not just a fad but deeply rooted in history. Long before the buzz on Yahoo, we had Prince's Purple Rain and the Purple People Eaters fearsome defense for the Minnesota Vikings. The history of the color, and its significance in world culture, goes even farther back, well before popular culture.

Purple is defined as a general term for the shade of color that occurs when you combine red and blue. People sometimes confuse it with the more narrowly-defined spectral color, violet. There is some debate amongst color aficionados over exactly which shades should officially be bestowed the title of purple. Other terms related to slightly different shades include heliotrope or magenta. Psychologically speaking, human beings have historically associated the color with regality, royalty, and nobility. The word purple's use was officially recorded in the English language in 975 AD. Figures as prominent as the emperors of Seleucid Empire, the King of Ptolemaic Egypt and Alexander the great all adorned themselves with purple attire. Egypt's Cleopatra was also very open about how purple was her favorite color.

In World War II, the Japanese used what was known as the Purple Code which indicated a covert maneuver. In the United States military, The Purple Heart is considered one of the most revered medals a soldier can earn - you have to wounded or killed while serving to be awarded one and it had to occur after the date April 5, 1917.

In Rock N' Roll, the band Deep Purple named themselves after Babe Ruth's favorite song by the same name. One of the most popular song's ever recorded by the great guitarist Jimi Hendrix was Purple Haze and it is also the favorite color of the pop celebrity Prince whose 1984 film and album Purple Rain is one of his best known works. Prince always encourages his fans to wear purple to his concerts.

In United States politics, a Purple State is a term used to describe a state of affairs in which there is an equal balanced between Republicans (normally symbolized by red) and Democrats (normally symbolized as blue).

Today the Gay community calls purple their pride color. It is also considered: the color of mourning for widows in Thailand. In the world of Parapsychology, or the study of the paranormal, a person with a purple aura is someone who has a love for rituals and the spirit world.

Whether the purple buzz on the Internet continues and the world turns into a sea of purple is yet to be seen. However, regardless of how far this purple buzz continues, purple's place in history is already solidified.

Sources-

http://startwearingpurple.yahoo.com/

http://thepurpleshop.com