The color white in India

Text:
In my culture, white has never been a good color. You wear white to funerals, wrap the dead in white and you usually don’t wear white to any festivities because of its connotations to death.

Context:
PK is an undergraduate student in India. She told me about the cultural significance of the color white when we both coincidentally found ourselves with matching white outfits.

Analysis:
Noting the cultural significance of the color white was interesting because of its contrasting meanings in western cultures. In western cultures, the color white is usually associated with chastity, purity and is worn by brides on their wedding days. To encounter a different cultural significant of a color and its association to entirely opposite events only shows the fluidity of associating meaning to abstract concepts (in this case, color).