Several major festivals are strongly associated with specific colours — coloured powders at Holi, red and gold at Lunar New Year, marigold at Día de los Muertos — each rooted in its own distinct religious or cultural tradition, not interchangeable examples of one general 'festival colour' idea.
Holi, a spring festival celebrated primarily in India and the wider Hindu diaspora, is marked by throwing brightly coloured powders, historically made from natural plant-based dyes.
Hindu
Red and gold dominate Lunar New Year decoration and dress across China and many other East and Southeast Asian communities that observe the festival.
China and other East and Southeast Asian communities
Día de los Muertos, a Mexican tradition rooted in Indigenous and Catholic practice, uses marigold flowers prominently, believed to guide spirits, alongside purple and pink.
Mexican · Mexico
Each of these is a separately scoped, separately sourced practice — shown together for comparison, not because they share one underlying meaning.
Coloured powders at Holi
Stable, widely documentedIndia and South Asian diaspora · Hindu festival tradition
Holi, a spring festival celebrated primarily in India and the wider Hindu diaspora, is marked by throwing and applying brightly coloured powders and water — historically made from natural plant-based dyes, now often synthetic — with no single fixed colour, since the celebration's character comes from the mix of many colours together.
Red and gold at Lunar New Year
Stable, widely documentedChina and other East and Southeast Asian communities that observe Lunar New Year
Red and gold dominate Lunar New Year decoration and dress across China and many other East and Southeast Asian communities that observe the festival, historically linked to red's association with luck and gold's association with wealth and prosperity.
Marigold, purple and pink at Día de los Muertos
Stable, widely documentedMexico · Mexican Día de los Muertos tradition (rooted in Indigenous and Catholic practice)
Día de los Muertos, a Mexican tradition rooted in both Indigenous and Catholic practice, uses marigold flowers (cempasúchil) prominently to guide spirits, alongside purple (mourning and Catholic ritual) and pink (celebration of life) — a joyful, celebratory tradition, not a solemn mourning observance in the Western funeral sense.
Gold, red and marigold at Diwali
Stable, widely documentedIndia and South Asian diaspora · Hindu, Jain and Sikh Diwali traditions
Diwali, the festival of lights observed by Hindu, Jain and Sikh communities (with different religious meanings in each), is associated with gold and warm lamp-light tones, red decoration, and marigold flowers — colours tied to prosperity, light overcoming darkness, and celebration.
Every claim above is scoped by the specific culture, region and/or period it applies to — none of these associations are presented as universal. See pigment and dye history for more.