National Pink Day 🎀

As is the case with a number of digital-age holidays, the exact origins and celebrations of National Pink Day are lost in time. What we do know is that when combined with white, pink has long been a symbol of femininity, grace, and chastity, whereas when combined with black, it calls up the prurient interests. In reverse chronological order, starting with recent pop culture, pink as a color and word has had many uses. In the 90s-era Aerosmith song “Pink,” Steven Tyler croons, “Pink on the lips of your lover / ‘Cause pink is the love you discover…” This is an illustration of the sense of femininity and romance the color has come to represent. But believe it or not, in the old days, pink was worn by boys in infancy and was considered a “stronger” color than blue. Before the 1940s, that’s just how it was. Even farther back, in the 1700s, we have the first use of the word “pink” to describe pale red, derived from the class of flowers called “the pinks.” Until then, pink was simply that, a flower, and the use of the word referred to a flower in the sense of, “His mother is the flower of dependability,” as in, the paragon or the prime example. In fact, the character Mercutio in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” has a line in which he says, “Nay, I am the very pinck of curtesie,” of course meaning he’s the most well-mannered chap you’re likely to find! It’s not uncommon today for men to own and wear a couple of pink dress shirts, a phenomenon that evolved in the 1980s when the browns and mustard-yellows of the 70s finally fell out of fashion. Perhaps pink business clothing was first meant as a sign of solidarity with the then-burgeoning feminist movement. In the interest of staying sharp, staying current, let’s hear from the singer Pink on human nature. “True beauty is knowing who you are and what you want and never apologizing for it.” That’s the true attitude not only of the American songstress, but the color pink itself. NATIONAL PINK DAY TIMELINE