Midnight Blue Belt is a belt worn in some Korean martial arts to signify that the wearer has attained dan rank, which translates to a degree holder. This belt is most commonly seen in the Korean martial arts of tang soo do and soo bahk do, where it is often used in place of the more common black belt. Its origin lies in Hwang Kee, who used it to denote dan holders in the Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan. In tang soo do, black is viewed as a colour that does not become darker, and thus signifies an end (death), whereas midnight blue represents more positive concepts, such as the element of Water.
Famous quotes containing the words midnight, blue and/or belt:
“Such as the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman’s Woe!”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“I think I noticed once
T’was morning one sole street-lamp still bright-lit,
Which, with a senile grin, like an old dunce,
Vied the blue sky, and tried to rival it....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Names on a list, whose faces I do not recall
But they are gone to early death, who late in school
Distinguished the belt feed lever from the belt holding pawl.”
—Richard Eberhart (b. 1904)