Redorange - Vermilion and Its Variations in Human Culture

Vermilion and Its Variations in Human Culture

Computer programming

• The web color orange red has a special significance in hacker culture. The documentation for Digital Equipment Corporation's VMS version 4 came in memorable, distinctively colored orangish-reddish ring binders, and "China red" was Digital's official name for this color. Mark Crispin seems to claim Digital's name for the color was Terracotta, at least in the context of PDP-10 machines running Tops-20.

Hindu culture

• Hindu women use vermilion along the hair parting line known as Sindoor, to signify that they are married. Hindu men often wear vermilion on their forehead during religious ceremonies and festivals.

Literature

• Vermilion Sands is a collection of science fiction short stories by J.G. Ballard published in 1971 about an imaginary future resort that pleases its guests by using various kinds of futuristic technology.

Mythology

• In Chinese mythology one of the four symbols of the four directions is a bird called Vermilion Bird, which represents the direction of south.

Religion

• The Shaolin temple, where the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma is reputed to have established the new sect of Chan Buddhism (Zen Buddhism), is colored a bright tone of vermilion. This temple was made famous in the West by the 1972-1975 TV series Kung Fu.

• In the Bible vermilion is listed as a pigment that was in use for painting buildings during the reign of Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah and is named in the book of the prophet Ezekiel as a pigment used in art that portrayed Chaldean men.

Jeremiah 22:11-14

"11 For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:

12 But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.

13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

14 That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion." King James Bible 1611 Anno Domini

Ezekiel 23:14-17

"14 And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

15 Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:

16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them." King James Bible 1611 Anno Domini

Royal palaces

• The throne rooms of the Emperor of China in the Forbidden City, of which there are several different ones that were used for various occasions, are painted China red, a tone of vermilion brighter than Chinese red but deeper and richer than the color vermilion (cinnabar) itself.