Are you up-to-date on Pink’s place?

Pink brings color to life. From roses to cheeks, sunsets to flamingos, or raspberries to sprinkled donuts—these levels of pale red resonate life and beauty. With its vibrant and alluring history, pink travels all the way from the visual world into lingual references, cultural meanings, and interpretations from society. And on June 23, National Pink Day, makes sure to highlight all of that.

We can find pink all over literature and language, with phrases like “in the pink” when someone is meant to be in healthy condition, “tickled pink” meaning to feel happy or pleased, or even “pink elephants” referring to drunken hallucinations. The word itself that titles this pretty hue is said to have come from the flowers of the same name, “pinks,” while the verb “to pink” was from “the name of ‘pinking’ shears that were used to cut around the edges of fabric,” according to holidayscalendar.com.

The more modern world has ascribed pink to all things sweet, tender, delicate, romantic, and can also be used to represent gentleness and childhood. Pink is the color most strongly attributed to femininity and girls. However, history had not always feminized pink. In fact, it was quite the contrary back then since pink was most often associated with boys while girls were instead dressed in blue. Artandobject.com explains that, “some described pink as a shade of red, arguing it was fundamentally masculine and therefore best suited for baby boys—especially when the only other option is blue, a gentle color and symbol of virginity.”

Pink’s shift in the eyes of society came with time, specifically after World War II when the color was used to “reestablish traditional, Western gender roles” and women who were pushed out of the workforce back into housewifery were highly advertised with pink-themed products to “refeminize them,” says artandobject.com. Jump to present time and we see more cultural shifts in our attitude towards pink. Creative freedom and activism propel a bolder, reframed view on the color that symbolizes empowerment and represents more gender neutrality, according to cnn.com.

In society, no color has undergone as many evolutions as pink. It’s a color that traverses culture, finding itself connected with controversy, art, fashion, and strong emotion. And in all its rich and colorful history, we still find ourselves tickled pink from this pale red hue. June 23 lets us appreciate the color and warmth of pink just a little more with National Pink Day. Whether it’s hot or in pastel, pink can be found all around us and this holiday gives us the time to celebrate it.