12 July: Orange

Orange (man's) day - 10 things you might not know about the colour orange. Human eyes perceive orange when observing light with a dominant wavelength between roughly 585 and 620 nanometres.

1. The colour was named after the fruit, not the other way round. The first recorded use of orange as a colour name in English was in 1512. Before that, things we would describe as orange today would be described as red (for example, red deer or red Squirrels), yellow-red or saffron.
2. As well as Oranges, there are many orange fruits, vegetables, spices and flowers, including Peaches, Apricots, mangoes, Carrots, paprika, Saffron and Curry powder. The colour comes from chemicals called carotenes, a type of photosynthetic pigment which converts light energy from the sun into chemical energy for the plants' growth. The same chemicals make the hues of autumn leaves after green chlorophyll is removed. Carotenes get their name from carrots.
3. Talking of carrots, they weren't always orange. Before the 18th century, carrots from Asia were usually purple, while those in Europe were either white or red. Dutch farmers selectively bred carrots to be orange as a tribute to William of Orange. The carrots you see in supermarkets today are probably orange horn carrots, which get their name from the town of Hoorn, in the Netherlands.
4. The House of Orange-Nassau, one of the most influential royal houses in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, originated in 1163 in the Principality of Orange, a feudal state north of Avignon in southern France. It was named after a Roman-Celtic settlement which was named Arausio, after a Celtic water god, and the name evolved into "Orange". Perhaps the fact that it was on the trade route for oranges may have helped, as well. In time, they adopted the colour, and thanks to William III, orange became associated with the Protestant movement. Protestants in Ireland became known as Orangemen, and the colour orange is included on the Irish Flag.
5. The complementary colour of orange is Blue, or more acurately, azure, a shade that is a quarter of the way between blue and Green on the colour spectrum. This means that orange is especially visible against a blue background, which is why buoys, lifeboats, lifejackets and lifeguard's uniforms are usually orange. The "black box" flight recorder of an aeroplane is actually orange for the same reason. It's also the reason prisoners in America are given orange clothes - making it easier to spot them if they escape.
6. People in the west tend to associate orange with amusement, the unconventional, extroverts, warmth, fire, energy, activity, danger, taste and aroma. In Christianity, orange represents the sin of gluttony, while in Buddhism it represents renunciation of the world, which is why Buddhist monks wear orange robes. In Confucianism, the religion and philosophy of ancient China, orange was the colour of transformation. This was because Yellow and red represented light and fire, also spirituality and sensuality, and transformation is what you get when the two interact.
7. An orange mineral pigment called realgar was used by artists in ancient Egypt, and also by Medieval artists for colouring manuscripts. In ancient Rome they used a pigment called orpiment, which contained arsenic and so was highly toxic. In 1797 a French scientist called Louis Vauquelin discovered the mineral crocoite, or lead chromate, which became a popular orange pigment in paints after that, along with cadmium sulfide and cadmium selenide.
8. Pre-Raphaelite artists were fond of orange - Elizabeth Siddal, a prolific model of the time and the wife of painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti had red-orange hair; Pomona, the goddess of fruitful abundance, was frequently depicted in orange robes. Impressionists took advantage of colour theory, learning quickly that orange and blue side by side made both colours appear brighter. Auguste Renoir would paint boats with stripes of chrome orange paint straight from the tube, while Toulouse Lautrec used orange for the clothing of dancers and people in Parisian clubs.
9. Orange in painting is usually produced by mixing Yellow and Red together. In the RGB colour model (the system used to create colours on television or computer screens), orange is made by combining high intensity red light with a low intensity green light, with the blue light turned off.
10. Paprika oleoresin is a natural food colouring containing carotenoids. It is made from Chilli peppers and used to colour Cheese, orange juice, spice mixtures and packaged sauces. It is also fed to Chickens to make their Egg yolks more orange.