The two lenses featured on the main page of Squidoo.com are — Color Trends 2011 and Color Meaning, Psychology and Symbolism.

Take a moment today to remember the many men and women who have protected and served us, our country and the freedom we cherish.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. — Abraham Lincoln, November 1864

While we’re thinking about the meaning of this day, you might be interested to know that the association of red with Memorial Day goes beyond just being the red, white and blue of the American flag.  The color red and the poppy symbolize “remembrance of those that died in war”

This association came out of one of the most memorable poems ever written about war.  It is a poem called “In Flanders Fields” written by Lt. Col. John McCrae.  The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders in the disturbed earth of the battlefields and cemeteries where war casualties were buried.

It is very moving and if you aren’t familiar with it you can hear it read in this video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Okay, if that video left you feeling a bit emotional, get back in the happy, holiday spirit by heading on over to Julie’s post “Inspiration Americana” for some uplifting ideas for celebrating in true American style.

And if you think that that Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day came about after WWI you might be surprised to learn that it started shortly after the Civil War.  Find out more at  History of Memorial Day.

See more pictures and learn about the Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Happy Memorial Day!

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How do you pick color names that are meaningful to kids?

You ask them!

Here’s what they told the folks at Crayola….

“We will use the colour orange and make it a symbol of the protest against the human rights violations in China. Due to the strict censorship it will be practically impossible for sportspeople and spectators to get into the stadium with obvious symbols in form of text or pictures. But no authority will be able to ban the colour orange, although it is obvious for everybody that it expresses a conspicuous accusation against the human rights violations in China

It is the Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot and his art workshop (Art in Defence of Humanism, AIDOH www.aidoh.dk) that is behind the ‘Colour Orange’ project.

Galschiot thinks of art as nonverbal communication and he often uses his art to make international art happenings to place focus on defenders of humanism. He usually uses his sculptures as artistic manifestations, but as a result of the extremely limited Freedom of Speech at the Olympics in 2008, he has chosen the colour orange. He funds his art events himself mainly through the sale of bronze sculptures to art collectors and he is therefore completely independent from political, economic and religious interests.

Jens Galschiot says: “This is not really a campaign in the traditional sense. The project has to work as a catalyst for some kind of wave or feeling that repeats itself over and over again and that flushes all over the world.”

The project will, through its own dynamics, function as what Joseph Beuys has called a “Gesamtkunstwerk” in which the distinction between the artist, the art itself and the viewer has become blurred. Everybody becomes part of the art.