Color: Orange | Country: Greece

Orange didn’t exist as a word before the 15th century. It wasn’t until Spanish and Portuguese merchants imported the orange fruit to the continent, that entomology reveals the English word orange, a chicken vs the egg case where the fruit that came before the colour association. The fruit originally came from China – but the English word comes from the Old Persian ‘narang’. Persian royalty would collect exotic trees such as orange trees for their landscape gardens. Arabs later traded the fruit and spread the word to Moorish Spain (the Spanish word for orange is ‘naranja’).

While various oranges can be mixed with yellow and red, a single pigment orange can offer more vibrancy and create cleaner mixtures than any mixed orange. Apart from natural orange ochres, the only orange pigments available to artists of the ancient world were highly toxic. Realgar was an arsenic-based orange pigment used in Ancient Byzantium, and was made extensive use of during the Italian Renaissance, most notably by the Venetian artists like Titian and Veronese. The development of Cadmium colors in the 19th Century brought new options for orange pigments, and by the mid 20th Century the modern synthetic organic pigments, including Benzymidazolone and Pyrrole oranges, expanded the possibilities even further.

Orange has long been associated with amusement, frivolity and entertainment. In Ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the god of wine, rituals and ecstasy, Bacchusor Dionysus, is often seen cloaked in orange. In Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, monks and holy figures — such as Krishna — wear bright saffron robes. Saffron pigment was costly, but readily available to dye clothes. Eventually, orange became the colour connected to various spiritual values, such as the highest state of enlightenment in Buddhism. In Jainism and Hinduism orange can also be intended to signify light and fire, and the quest for spiritual knowledge, whereas in Confucianism and Taoism, orange is associated with the notion of spiritual transformation.

Tourlou Tourlou – Roasted Vegetable Salad with Feta, Tzatziki

Zorka – Spring Green Pie

Plaki – Halibut Bake from Kalamata

Portokalopita – Orange Pie