Red Letter Date Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Red is one of the three primary colours in the RGB colour model and a secondary one in the CMYK system created from yellow and magenta.

Within these there are many hues, saturations, light and tones. These can then be divided further into tints and shades. A tint is mixed with white and a shade is mixed with black.
In the Middle Ages the Pope and Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church began to wear red to symbolize the blood of Christ, the Christian martyrs and their willingness to make the sacrifice themselves.

In the 18th century it became the colour of revolution and the resistance - on land or sea a red flag meant that no prisoners would be taken. From the early 20th century it was then adopted as the colour of communism with Russia, China and Vietnam all adopting a red flag after their revolutions.

Red symbolizes many different things often conflicting, danger and courage, anger and love, passion and joy and is used internationally as a warning.

Poppy
The colour poppy red is a shade of pink-red named after the poppy flower which was a common plant that grew in disturbed ground in Europe. As such it was a typical sight on the fields in the World Wars.
Canadian officer and surgeon, John McCrae, wrote the famous poem "In Flanders Fields" on 3 May 1915 after attending yet another funeral:
"In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,"
It led to the popular use of poppies as a symbol of remembrance for soldiers who died in war and it is worn by Commonwealth countries on the 11th of November and other memorial dates.

Garnet
The colour garnet is a dark tone of red with some purple tints. It is named after the red gemstone garnet - although they can actually be found in colours ranging from orange to green.
It is the birthstone for those born in January or those in Capricorn and Aquarius in Astrology.

Raspberry
Raspberry red is a colour that resembles the colour of raspberries although it ranges from the lighter pinkish red of French raspberries, raspberry rose, raspberry glace to the very dark raspberry colour.
"Raspberry Beret" is a song written by American musician Prince and was the lead single on his 1985 album "Around the World in a Day."

Amaranth
Amaranth is a reddish-rose colour taken from the flower of the amaranth plant. The Amaranths do come in other colour varieties but the colour only refers to its red shade which is similar to a redder magenta.

Terracotta
As a noun terracotta, meaning baked earth, is used for a clay based ceramic that can be fired at low temperatures and is used as both a functional material for pipes and tiles and as an artist's medium for pots and craftwork.
These are a reddish brown colour caused by its iron content combining with oxygen during firing. This particular shade is used as an adjective for the colour itself.

Crimson
Crimson is a strong, deep, red colour combined with blue or violet that results in a purple tint. It originally referred to the colour of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect named Kermes vermilio, but is now often a generic term for slightly bluish-red colours that are between red and rose.
Besides the mentioned movie 'crimson tide' also refers to beaches that are contaminated with a type of algae.
In other popular culture the principal antagonist in Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" is the Crimson King and "Crimson and Clover" was a hit song for both Tommy James and the Shondells in 1968 and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts in 1981.

Carmine
Carmine is the general term used for some deep red colours that are slightly purple but are generally slightly closer to red than the colour crimson is.
Carmine is the name given to the dye made from the dried bodies of the female cochineal insect.
It is also an Italian male name that means 'with song.'

Copper
Copper is a reddish brown colour that is named after the metal copper. Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural colour other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and it acquires a reddish tarnish when it is exposed to air.

Tomato
Another colour that is named after a food item although it is a medium reddish-orange that is more like the colour of common supermarket tomatoes rather than those ripened on the vine which have a redder shade.

Chili
Chili red is the colour of red chili peppers which also come in white, yellow, purple or black. They are widely used in many cuisines as a hot spice due to the capsaicinoids they contain.

Claret
Claret is a deep, rich shade of red named for the colour of red Bordeaux wine.
This is produced in the southwest of France around the city of Bordeaux itself. Until the 18th century the region produced and exported a red wine known as clairet which was a dark rose colour and this name remains in the English language.

Ruby
Another naturally occurring red, the ruby is a variety of corundum which ranges from a pinkish red to a blood red colour. Its names comes from the Latin 'ruber' which means red.
The ruby is the traditional birthstone for July and is pinker than garnet.
"Ruby Tuesday" is a 1967 song by the Rolling Stones. It became their fourth number-one hit in the United States and reached number three in the United Kingdom.

Auburn
Auburn is a human hair colour in a variety of reds, usually a reddish brown colour that can range from a medium to dark colour. Many people have taken to referring to this as 'titian' but while titian hair is referred to as a brownish shade of red hair, auburn must actually contain red within it.

Vermillion
Vermillion is known as a 'colour family' as, depending on its sulfides, it can be many shades of warm reds from a dull reddish purple to a bright reddish orange.
It is called cinnabar in mineralogy and crystallography as it is found naturally in the powdered mineral which is a form of mercury sulfide. It can be made synthetically from red lead and this is referred to as vermillion. This name comes from the natural red dye in the kermes vermilio insect (which creates crimson) as it is similar in colour.

Scarlet
Scarlet is a bright red with a slightly orange tinge. Its name comes from a type of expensive cloth during mediaeval Europe. This cloth was also stained by the kermes insect so it was the colour we know today but it was originally the cloth itself that was called scarlet not the colour.
Interestingly the colour was worn by high church officials, Roman officers and other powerful people as a sign of nobility and rank but was also associated with immorality and sin - particularly adultery and prostitution.
"The Scarlet Pimpernel" was a novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy set during the French revolution where the gentleman in question was a brave hero who saved many aristocrats from the guillotine.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter" has a heroine who wears the colour as a punishment for adultery and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1888 novel "A Study in Scarlet" uses the term to describe a message written in blood.