Black Color

What is the color black?  Objects that do not reflect any light are considered to be black.  A color with no hue, black absorbs light frequencies, and there is some debate around whether or not it is truly a color at all.

Yet black seems the most commanding of anything on the color wheel. It’s simple boldness is striking.  It emits a sense of power. Perhaps for this reason, the belt awarded for the highest level of martial arts is black.

Throughout the history of superstition, black has represented all things bad. One had to be careful not to let a black cat cross their path, or years of bad luck would follow. Black cats were the companions of witches; and in film, evil cats have never been any other shade – a white cat does not seem capable of invoking the same fear.

The color black has significance in many different belief systems. For the Aztecs, it represented war. They formed their blades from black obsidian and carried them bravely into battle. And with war, death and religion inextricably mixed in that culture, their priests were robed in nothing but black.

Black clothing is a popular choice for both sexes. Often considered slimming and elegant, many women prefer to dress in black. The ultimate go-anywhere fashion item is the Little Black Dress.  Yet while black clothing may be slimming to wear, a black object looks heavier than a similar object of differing color to the observer. It is an odd fact that when looking at two balloons side by side, one black and the other not, the eyes will tell the brain that the black one weighs more, even though they weigh just the same.

Black can symbolise so many things:  the void, emptiness, melancholy, mourning.  As a color, it has more dramatic connotations than any other.  Black is profound;  it is the color of mystery.