Just a random question out of the green.

[riffclown]

I think I read somewhere where some considered a green kite unlucky, I'd like to hear the story behind that if that's true.. My random thought though, If Green is an unlucky kite color and Purple is such a popular one, Why doe we have at least three different colors of Icarex solidly in the green family with a teal or two that are also in the neighborhood but only one Purple in production now?

Flo Green, Forest, Cedar, Teal and even Carribean Blue(retired)  has a bit of a green tint to my eye.

Now that Plum, Grape and the light grape (and if you reach for it Berry) are no longer produced we have Purple.

[HughB]

Ah, the perfect post for St. Patrick's Day... Blame the Swedes - or at least, a Swede. Green came to be viewed as an unlucky color due to the experiments of chemist, Carl Scheele, who in 1778 invented a vibrant new shade of green using a substance called arsenic. "Scheele's Green" spread like fire among European fashionistas, instantly replacing older, duller green dyes derived from copper carbonate. 28 years after Scheele's death (from renal failure from ingesting heavy metals ala arsenic), two German chemists, Russ and Saddler, "improved" on Scheele's formula to create "Emerald Green," and by 1814, the Wilhelm Dye and White Lead Company made a fortune marketing this newly-christened "Paris Green" in everything from clothing to wallpaper. However, Paris Green, while less toxic than Scheele's, still relied on arsenic! And when these green-tinted materials became damp, they released a poisonous gas which often resulted in ghastly illness and death. Although science identified arsenic as the killer ingredient by 1822, green dye - and specifically green fabric - had already acquired a black eye. Paris Green's toxicity was later put to use as the first insecticide, killing beetles, budworms, mosquitos and, as late as 1945, rats. So, green acquired its "unlucky" reputation by utilizing arsenic much like millinery acquired its "crazy" reputation ("Mad as a hatter!") by using mercury. 

[Exult]

On 10/29/2020 at 1:12 AM, riffclown said:

I think I read somewhere where some considered a green kite unlucky, I'd like to hear the story behind that if that's true.. My random thought though, If Green is an unlucky kite color

Not directly an answer to your question of why there are many green shades, but more a comment of when and where green is considered to be bad luck. A Chinese former college at work informed me that green was a colour for being deceived by one's wife and, I believe it was, also not knowing about it and then something about a hat? So I had a look at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_in_Chinese_culture#Blue_/_Azure_/_Green

There green, infidelity and hats are mentioned in the same Wikipedia sentience:

"Separately, green hats are associated with infidelity and used as an idiom for a cuckold."

Ahh, and there was some historical connection between China and kites wasn’t it?  🙂

1 hour ago, HughB said:

Blame the Swedes

Come on, go on being passively aggressive. Just blame it on those Swedes again… !!   🙂

[Exult]

Yes, there was also some mess 12-13 years ago about the originally green colour of “Kung-Fu Pandas” eyes, green being somewhat malicious:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/panda-film-is-a-national-insult-say-chinese-871869.html

[frob]

Yeah, I remember that. The film broke Chinese box-office records, and government entertainment groups started research and offered funding to animations studios because they wanted to know how an American animated comedy could push popular culture farther than any of their home-grown movies could.

A few people sued, but I think when it comes to movies, a few people always sue. 

IIRC, people sued Warner Brothers over the Harry Potter broomsticks, saying the pointed the wrong way. I recall they offered to remake the broomstick scenes if the group could demonstrate actually flying on broomsticks, which got a chuckle but dismissed from the courts.