The Color Purple

It’s Advent and I got a journaling prompt to write about the color PURPLE.

PURPLE, Thoughts…
When I think of PURPLE, I think of many ways the color touches and impacts my life, my family, photography, spiritual, and personal tastes. Purple has much symbolism in history and culture, and has been a prized dye through the centuries, because it has been rare. Light refraction, the way a prism breaks up light into colors, for instance, doesn’t give a lot of purple. It is on the end of the spectrum. The color purple came up as a journaling prompt today because the church year is celebrating Advent and the typical color used for the season is purple. The prompt said: “Write a post about the color purple.” So Advent is the central theme, but purple intertwines in a number of areas of my life.

For the church year, Purple is used for both Advent and Lent, which used to confuse me. Advent, prepare for the coming of a King – royalty! Lent, prepare your heart by penitence for facing the cross. For both seasons, the church year uses purple but for different reasons. Advent anticipates the Coming of the King! Royalty, majesty! Purple signifies the richness of the King, his robes and train. Lent is about preparing for the cross, and thinking about what Jesus did for us. It is a time of solemness, repentance, a time to recognize, once again, that if there was only one person, he would die for them. That is how great his love is for us. So we spend time during Lent thinking about his sacrifice. Here the color purple seems to be based on the humiliation he suffered at the hands of the guards who gave him a purple cloak and a crown of thorns to wear before was crucified. So purple in Lent means repentance, sorrow, recognizing the need for forgiveness.

But there is more to purple to talk about.

Alzheimer’s Association uses the purple ribbon to represent those who suffer and fight for the end to this disease. My Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and we watched her decline for almost 9 years. It is a humiliating disease. All the family could do was love on her, take care of her, and make sure her health otherwise was taken care of. During that time, I walked for Alzheimer’s to raise funds. Everyone wore purple — hats, T-shirts, scarves, you name it. There was a purple wave walking to raise money to support families and research to end the disease.

As a photographer, there are not a lot of purple things in nature. There are purple flowers, but look at any blooming field and you won’t see a lot of purple in nature. I entered a photography contest simply titled Purple Capture, and had three images in the top 10%, so I guess I like to photograph purple.

From the standpoint of light and photography, purple is made up of red and blue in equal amounts. (Red for the blood. Blue for the majesty, getting back to Advent and Lent.) On the light spectrum, there’s very little width for purple. Think of this when you see a rainbow — you see the yellow, red and orange bands very well, you see some of the green and blue, but you see little, if any, of the purple. That is the light spectrum. Where we see this in nature is at sunrises and sunsets. If the lighting and clouds are just right, the first light you will see in the morning, and the last night you will see at night will be purple. Your eyes might not see it, but your camera does. There are purple hues at sunset if you stay to watch long enough. They come after the reds and oranges, and peek out for a moment.

Personal thoughts I have from my memories about things purple:

Little girls often like purple, and sometimes pink. I used to like blue best, but after I experienced breast cancer, I decided I like pink, because of the pink ribbon. Blue and pink mixed make a light purple, or violet, so I guess I’ve flirted with purple all my life.

One of my favorite “dressy” dresses, before kids, was a dark purple, silk dress. It felt so good to wear, maybe because I felt “royal” when I wore it. I think I got it to wear at a wedding, but then I wore it to special dinners and to church. Our first family portrait when my daughter was one has me wearing that purple silk dress, with pearls, and my daughter wearing a fancy machine-made lace dress that I made for her. It’s a lovely portrait. I got the dress on closeout at some high priced store. My body shape is wrong these days to wear it, but I hold on to it, just in case.

Then there is the fact that amethysts are purple and that’s my birthstone! Before kids, we got a nicely cut amethyst stone on a gold chain that is in my in my treasure box. Hmmm, I wonder why I keep forgetting to pull it out and wear it! Typing these personal memories, I realized that for some reason, a lot of my winter coats have been purple. Not a clue why!

Symbolism, emotions for different colors results in a lot of different ideas. Some were from different cultural backgrounds. Some seemed influenced by new age viewpoints. Emotions range from mystery, wisdom and spirituality, to the “stimulation of red and calmness of blue”.

A consistent theme for purple is that of royalty, power, and wealth, likely because the dyes for purple were very expensive in ancient days and only the rich could afford to have that color in their closet.

We see purple come up in several key areas of the Bible. First in the Tabernacle where there was red, blue and purple yarns woven on linen on almost everything on the tabernacle.

“For the inside of the Tabernacle, Bezalel made a special curtain of finely woven linen. He decorated it with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and with skillfully embroidered cherubim.” Exodus 36:35 NLT

In the New Testament, we see Jesus being mocked with a purple robe as part of the humiliation.

“When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.” Mark 15:20 NLT

We read of a woman, on of the first believers, who traded in expensive purple cloth.

“One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying.” Acts of the Apostles 16:14 NLT

There are about 50 references to purple the Bible, most relating to the expense and royalty of the color.

Color theory for art application discusses the history of attempts to find violets, mauves and deep purple dye sources, both for cloths and paints. The Greek word for purple is “porphyra”, a Tyrian dye used in antiquity. In 1856, the first dye made by man was “mauveine” later named mauve. The first first real cobalt violet was prepared in 1859, in time for Monet.

Back to Advent:. Church history gets a bit jumbled around reformation and down through the years. The idea of a church year, church colors by seasons in the church year, doesn’t exist in many churches today. Those that have stayed liturgical, (have a service that embodies some of the traditions of the past) will have colors like green, red, white, gold and purple/blue, that are changed out through the year. Advent starts the church year. (We just had our New Year celebration yesterday!)

Does celebrating Advent matter? It matters to me. I try to do several things for Advent and a couple for Lent, because the pull of the world is so heavy these days.I could be in the stores all day and never be satisfied I’d found the “perfect” gift. Much better to spend time with my Savior and Lord.

When I “see” Jesus, do I “see” purple? Good question. No. I see Him in a plain white tunic, sandals, well worn hands with nail holes. Sometimes I will see him with a purple/blue sash over his shoulder. It is like He is dressed in His finest clothes. Then it seems like His Kingship is important and needs to be emphasized. Jesus is my friend and He usually appears to my mind in a friendly, approachable form. But for worship, He’s the King of kings. Majesty! I can never forget He’s part of the Trinity.

Conclusion/Summary: I really do like the color purple. That is my decision after writing about it. Many things in my life have revolved around or included purple. From childhood memories to photography to science, purple is intriguing. That’s an emotion I can assign to purple!

As far as Advent and Kent go, I can handle purple having two meanings. In a way, it’s like two sides of the same coin. You have a Royal, Holy King who wants humble, sincere, repentant hearts. Purple backed by purple.

The last thing left. Gather purple images and make a collage!