All About the Color YELLOW

Introducing yellow

Yellow shines with optimism, enlightenment, and happiness. Shades of golden yellow carry the promise of a positive future. Yellow will advance from surrounding colors and instill optimism and energy, as well as spark creative thoughts.

How the color yellow affects us physically

• Stimulates mental processes

• Stimulates the nervous system

• Activates memory

• Encourages communication

Yellow: The color of the solar plexus chakra

Yellow is the color of the Solar Plexus Chakra, also known as Manipura.

This chakra is located in the stomach area. It is linked to the stomach, liver, skin, large intestine, muscular system, and solar plexus area.

The Solar Plexus Chakra is representative of vitality and will. When this chakra is open, it acts to empower a person and help them find their personal strength. It will help turn dreams and goals into reality.

Gemstones that will aid the Solar Plexus Chakra include amber and citrine.

Yellow around the globe

• In Chinese culture, colors corresponded with the five primary elements, the directions, and the four seasons. Yellow was associated with earth and the center (in relation to direction).

• The Chinese have placed a predominance upon the color yellow not seen elsewhere in the world. It was the color of emperors during both the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty.

• Huangdi, also known as the Yellow Emperor, is thought to be the founder of Chinese civilization, due to the tremendous amount of inventions that took place during his reign.

• In India, yellow is the color of the Vaisya caste, or farmers, and is the color Hindus wear to celebrate the Festival of Spring.

• During the tenth century in France, the doors of traitors and criminals were painted yellow.

• In the United States, taxi cabs and school buses are associated with the color yellow.

• During the 1357 Japanese "War of Dynasty," warriors wore a yellow chrysanthemum as a pledge of courage.

• Jews wore yellow armbands in Nazi concentration camps.

• In Aztec culture, yellow symbolized food because it was the colur of corn, the primary food of the Aztec people.

• Yellow signifies “sadness” in Greece’s culture and “jealousy” in France’s culture.

Religious & mythological associations with yellow

• Yellow is representative of "Greed" in Christianity.

Political associations of yellow

• The phrase "Yellow Dog Democrat" refers to a person who is a hard-core Democrat. This originates back to Southerners in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who disliked the Republicans. Such people would rather vote for a “yellow dog” than a Republican.

• Yellow is the symbol for liberalism in many countries.

Interesting information about yellow

• Yellow is psychologically the happiest color in the color spectrum.

• In medical terms, a yellow flag indicates a quarantine.

• Yellow Stones: Amber, Calcite, Cat's Eye, Citrine, Fluorite, Golden Beryl, Golden Yellow Topaz, Golden Tiger Eye, Iron Pyrite, Lemon Chrysoprase, Yellow Celestite, Yellow Danburite, Yellow Garnet, Yellow Jade, Yellow Jasper, Yellow Kunzite, Yellow Muscovite, Yellow Rhodonite, Yellow Sapphire, Yellow Tourmaline

• The comic book character Green Lantern was afraid of the color yellow.

• Yellow is the color that means "elevated" in the color-coded threat system established by presidential order in March 2002. This system quickly informs law enforcement agencies when intelligence indicates a change in the terrorist threat facing the United States.

• 75% of the pencils sold in the United States are painted yellow. 

Yellow in athletics and sports

• A yellow flag is used in car racing to signal caution. Cars must remain in their current position when a yellow flag is shown.

• A penalty is indicated in football when a referee throws a yellow flag onto the playing field.

Companies or brands identified with yellow

• Midas

• Stanley Tools

• McDonald' s
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Sprint Goes

Popular phrases that include yellow

• Yellowbellied: a cowardly manner

• Yellow fever: a disease involving high fever and jaundice that is common in the tropics

• Yellow jack: a flag flown on a vessel to show that it is under quarantine

• Yellowdog contract: a contract which denies a person the right to join a worker's union

• Yellow journalism: newspaper articles thought to be sensationalized in order to sell more papers.

Quotes about yellow

• "Everyone knows that yellow, orange, and red suggest ideas of joy and plenty. I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will." -- Eugene Delacroix

• “As a picture painted in yellow always radiates spiritual warmth, or as one in blue has apparently a cooling effect, so green is only boring.” -- Wassily Kandinsky

• “Oh yes! He loved yellow, did good Vincent...When the two of us were together in Arles, both of us insane, and constantly at war over beautiful colors, I adored red; where could I find a perfect vermilion?” -- Paul Gauguin

• “What a horrible thing yellow is.” -- Edgar Degas

What it says about you when you buy a yellow vehicle

There is no question that the vehicle you drive is an extension of your personality -- an unspoken, but clear message to the rest of the world. The message you send by driving a vehicle that is Sunshine Yellow:

• Sunny disposition
• Joyful
• Young-at-heart

If, however, your vehicle is a Yellow-Gold, you give a different impression:

• Intelligent
• Warm
• Loves comfort and will pay for it

From The Color Answer Book by Leatricce Eiseman with permission

Songs with yellow in the title

• "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, covered by Amy Grant, covered by Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carlton

• "Black, Red, Yellow" by Pearl Jam

• "Blue and Yellow" by The Used

• "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" by Frank Zappa

• "Double Yellow Line" by The Music Machine

• "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John

• "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss

• "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan

• "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" by Tony Orlando and Dawn

• "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles
• " Yellow" by Coldplay

Yellow in the garden

• Yellow is considered a warm color in landscape design.

• Yellow's appearance in the garden has a stimulating effect.

• Yellow flowers come forward in the landscape, helping to make a large garden feel cozier.

• Yellow lillies make for a bright, long blooming addition to any garden.

• Yellow's complimentary color in the garden is purple.

Yellow and our sense of taste

Fruit comes to mind first for yellow foods, but there are also many yellow vegetables.

• Wonderfully sweet with firm and creamy flesh, bananas come prepackaged in their own yellow jackets.

• The exceptional juiciness and vibrant tropical flavor of the pineapple, which balances the tastes of sweet and tart, makes them only second to bananas as America's favorite tropical fruit.

• Juicy and sweet, with a soft, buttery, yet somewhat grainy texture, the white to cream-colored flesh of pears was once referred to as the "gift of the gods."

• We are just beginning to discover the wealth of nourishment supplied by the mildly sweet flavored and finely textured winter squash. It was once such an important part of the diet of the American Indians that they buried it along with the dead to provide them nourishment on their final journey to the afterlife.

Yellow and our sense of smell

• "Lemon" was the original scent of the yellow colored Magic Scents Crayons from Binney & Smith Inc., introduced in 1994 with mostly food scents. However, there were numerous reports that children were eating the food-scented crayons, so the food scents were retired and replaced with non-food scents. The scent for the color yellow became "daffodil."

• Lemon Peel: A very strong, fresh lemon scent. Great for summer, very refreshing. Aromatherapy benefits: Uplifting, refreshing, cheering, stimulating, rejuvenating.