Abstract:

Due to their capacity of carrying ancient beliefs, having symbolic meanings and being easy to keep in mind, colors and the words used as their names have important roles in transmitting the cultural heritage and the belief systems of a nation or a society. It should be pointed out that the colors related to ancient belief systems and lifestyle of a nation still carry on the deep rooted conceiving as a cultural heritage every time even though they might have some changes in meanings from time to time. As it is the case in many cultures, the colors carry different meanings and are used as symbols; it has been the same in Turkic culture as well. At first they bore the basic elements of the belief system, were used as the symbolic meanings in the beliefs, appeared in the rituals, and later they have also been transformed into the oral and written literary creations as well. Wherever they have been used and seen, their deeply rooted perception was always kept in. One of the most ancient colors in Turkic culture is “al (scarlet)”. It has been used as part of the ancient Turkic beliefs and rituals. Sometimes the color “al (scarlet)” has been used as a favorable adjective that described beings, sometimes used as an unfavorable name for creatures. In both cases, the color “al” carried the deeply rooted perception of the Turkic people. This color has always kept the meaning of “transformation and change”. This meaning must be related to light and heat of the creator. This light and heat may be observed in fire, in the sun, in gold or some other beings. Whatever this light and heat in other words the energy provided by God, touches that is transformed into “al (scarlet)”. As a result, the meaning of “al (scarlet)” might be explained “the thing or being is transformed and changed by the energy of Tengri”. In this article, I will initially try to explain the basic meanings of the color “al (scarlet)” in Turkic understanding. Secondly, I will classify and provide some examples about its favorable and unfavorable usages that will show how the meaning of the color “al (scarlet)” has been transformed. I will also discuss the reasons for those changes in the meaning of the color. In the conclusion part, I will try to explain deeply rooted and never changing meaning of this color.

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