pink hat and blue hat

Dear teachers,

While learning English we are also required to learn target culture. I was told in America baby gil wears pink hat and baby boys wears blue hat. Is it the same case in Canada? What's the reason for doing that? Does it have something to do with North America culture?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.


Jiang

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by Anonymous

Dear teachers,

While learning English we are also required to learn target culture. I was told in America baby gil wears pink hat and baby boys wears blue hat. Is it the same case in Canada? What's the reason for doing that? Does it have something to do with North America culture?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.


Jiang

It's the same in Canada. Often yellow and/or light green are chosen as colors if the sex of the baby is not yet known.

The custom of dressing boys in blue and girls in pink has its origin in the idea of protecting newborns from evil spirits. Blue, as the color of the heavens, was especially potent in frightening away demons, hence it was allotted to the most important child, the boy. Girls were thought so little of in early centuries that there was no point in giving them a particular color; pink was probably a later attempt to balance the color scheme. A European legend is much prettier. Baby boys were found under cabbages, which were somewhat blue in color. A baby girl was born in the heart of a pink rose.
http://www.geocities.com/owlsinfo/children/whypb.html

Why do boy babies get dressed in blue, and girls in pink?
Long ago, many people believed that evil spirits hung around the nursery, but that these spirits were repelled by certain colours. The most potent colour was blue, associated with the heavenly sky.
Blue was believed to frighten away demons and rob them of their power. So blue on a baby was not only adornment, but also seen as a very necessary precaution. Now this was a long time ago, when girls were considered inferior, so boys got the really potent blue colour—it didn't matter what colour girls got. The assumption is that later generations chose pink for girls to symbolize that new rosy all-over-pink look.
http://www.dearanswerlady.com/html/pinkblue.html

:D

[RonBee]

I didn't know that about the hats. I did know that blankets for baby boys are supposed to be blue and blankets for baby girls are supposed to be pink, but I didn't know the reason for that.

:)