Orange surrounds our everyday life, yet is not a word, or a colour we think of consciously, and yet it is one that demands an immediate human reaction. You all will have a strong opinion, for example, of a passing car coloured orange...you will liteally love it, or hate it. It's true isn't it!!
So, following my 'banana' post, I have compiled some interesting facts about the colour orange, the fruit orange, and even the orange order, historically.
You will also see that Spain is associated, in Europe, with oranges, but much was 'stolen' from Portugal's prior sources!
So, here is a compilation of orange history, please enjoy it...
In English heraldry, orange denotes strength, honour, generosity, and prosperity. However, its use as a heraldic tincture is relatively rare.
Orange is the national colour of The Netherlands, because its royal family used to own the principality of Orange (the title is still used for Dutch heir apparent). It is the colour of choice for many of the national sports teams and their supporters. The nickname of the Dutch national soccer (football) team is Oranje, the Dutch word for orange. In the modern flag of the Netherlands, red substitutes the original orange, but on royal birthdays the flag has an additional orange banner. Most geographical usages of the word orange can be traced back to Dutch maritime power in the 17th century. In Ireland the use of orange dates from the reign of William of Orange, the Protestant English king and a Dutch stadholder.
Orange signifies Protestantism in Northern Ireland, and to a lesser extent in the Republic of Ireland (the orange part of whose flag represents the Protestant population, and Hinduism in India and Sri Lanka.
Orange has become a colour symbolising opposition around the world.
Orange was the rallying colour of the 2004–2005 Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
Orange is used as a rallying colour by Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip who oppose the Gaza Pull-Out plan.
Native Americans associated the color orange with kinship
Orange is the party colour of:
Fidesz-MPSZ in Hungary
CD&V, Flanders, Belgium
People's National Party, Jamaica
The Justice and Truth Alliance, Romania
Free Patriotic Movement, Lebanon
People First Party, Republic of China (Taiwan)
New Democratic Party, Canada
June List, Sweden
Free Patriotic Movement, Lebanon
Bharatiya Janata Party, India
Pora or "High Time", Ukraine — see Orange Revolution
Liberal Democrats, United Kingdom
Social Democratic Party, Portugal
People's Party (Spain) since 2005
BZÖ, Jörg Haider's newly formed party in Austria
National Union (Israel)
Reformed Political Party, Netherlands
Orange,Tangerine and Mandarin, common name for citrus fruit of several trees. Different varieties include the sweet orange, the sour orange, and the mandarin orange, or tangerine.
The Navel Orange, so named for their "belly button" at the blossom end, were discovered in the 1820's as an unusual growth on a Salata tree in Salvador, Brazil, but are believed to have originated in China. It's a large seedless fruit, that's juicy and sweet with thick skins that make it easy to peel and section for eating. The Cara Cara resembles a regular Navel, but the inside is a gorgeous deep salmon color. The taste is sweet and juicy. This unique variety originated at the Hacienda Cara Cara in Venezuela in the early 1970s, and are a new addition to the California, San Joaquin Valley.
Valencia, first named Excelsior, is considered the worlds most important orange. Believed to be of Spanish origin, the variety actually became of interest in the Azores and is almost certainly of old Portuguese origin. The rind is thin and leathery, the interior bright orange, with a high juice content and sweet flavor. Valencias typically have 2-4 seeds per fruit.
Tangerine is the common name for a variety of Mandarin orange. The mandarin orange is native to southeastern Asia and has been widely cultivated in orange-growing regions of the world. The tangerine resembles the orange but is smaller and oblate in shape and has a more pungent odor, a thinner rind, and sections that may be readily separated. It has a food value comparable to that of the orange, but the fruit is more delicate and subject to damage in handling.
The Satsuma Mandarin is believed to have originated in Japan probably in the mid-sixth century A.D. It acquired its name in 1878 by the wife of Gen. Van Valkenberg, the U.S. Minister to Japan. Satsuma's have a mild sweet flavor, full of juice, virtually no seeds, pebbly in texture and the interior is a bright orange. This fruit peels and segments easily.
The fruit of all these varieties is technically a hesperidium, a kind of berry. It consists of several easily separated carpels, or sections, each containing several seeds and many juice cells, covered by a leathery exocarp, or skin, containing numerous oil glands. Orange trees are evergreens, seldom exceeding 9 m (30 ft) in height. The leaves are oval and glossy and the flowers are white and fragrant. Three essential oils are obtained from oranges: oil of orange, obtained from the rind of the fruit and used principally as a flavoring agent; oil of petigrain, obtained from the leaves and twigs and used in perfumery; and oil of neroli, obtained from the blossoms and used in flavorings and perfumes.
In the United States the principal orange-producing states are Florida, California, Texas, and Arizona. From 1991 to 1992 the yield of oranges in the United States was about 10 million metric tons. The principal crops of the western growers consist of the Valencia and the Bahia, or Washington navel orange, imported from Bahia, Brazil, in 1870, and developed in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The navel orange is a seedless orange, with medium-thick rind, in which a second small, or abortive, orange grows. A variety of the Washington navel orange is the principal orange product of Texas.
The sour orange is cultivated to a limited extent for marmalade and to provide rootstock for less vigorous strains. About 20 percent of the total crop of oranges is sold as whole fruit; the remainder is used in preparing frozen and canned orange juice, extracts, and preserves.
Basic Nutritional Facts:
· Low fat
· Saturated fat-free
· Sodium-free
· Cholesterol-free
· A good source of vitamin C
The Orange Order
The Orange Order: Myths and Facts*
The Orange Order has its origins with King William of Orange and his war in Ireland in 1689 -1699.
King William of Orange won "civil and religious liberties" and the Battle of the Boyne.
The Orange Order represents Irish Protestants
The Orange Order has always been Unionist
The Orange Order was founded not in the 1690s, but in the 1790s as a reaction to efforts, especially by the United Irishmen who were predominately Protestant, to unite people of all religious persuasions in the cause of civil rights in Ireland and independence from England.
Far from William's victory bringing civil and religious liberty, it ushered in a century of loss of rights, not only for Catholics in Ireland, but for the majority of Protestants who were members of the Presbyterian Church and who also suffered loss of rights because they did not adhere to the "established" or state church, the Church of Ireland.
When it was founded the Orange Order was exclusively for members of the Church of Ireland. Presbyterians were not admitted until 1834. It is a minority within Irish Protestantism; opinion among Protestants about the role of the order is divided and many oppose it.
Dominated from the start by wealthy Protestant landlords, the Orange Order initially opposed the Act of Union [with Britain] of 1800 because the abolition of the Irish parliament, which only represented a tiny wealthy minority, seemed to threaten their privileges.
The legal system of the Six Counties continues to be presided over by judges and magistrates who are members of the Orange Order. Many RUC also swear alliance to the Order. Unionist political leaders are generally Order members.
Qualifications [from the Order's handbook]: "An Orangeman should... strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome, and scrupulously avoid countenancing any act or ceremony of Popish Worship; he should by all lawful means, resist the ascendancy of that Church, it encroachments and the extension of its power..."
Expulsion: "Any member dishonoring the Institution by marrying a Roman Catholic shall be expelled; and every Member shall use his best endeavors to prevent and discountenance the marriage of Protestants with Roman Catholics..."
The Penal Laws against Catholics were zealously backed by the Orange Order. Under these codes, the law did not even recognize the "existence" of an Irish Roman Catholic.
Sources;
http://www.garvaghyroad.org/OO%20facts.htm
http://www.bouquetoffruits.com/fruit-facts/orange-facts.html
wikipedia
http://ph.f339.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.rand=9pnd9g4c9d86d
