Wear your purple today Piggies & Pals, and put your paws together for the artist formerly known as Prince! It's Purple Day, Piggies! 🐹 💜 💜 💜 🥬 💋

"🎶 You don't have to be rich to feed me right,
You don't have to be cool to scratch me light
Ain’t no particular veg I’m more compatible with,
I just want your extra time and your 💋💋💋💋💋 ... lettuce."

~ "Kiss - my Lettuce", adapted for Guinea Pigs, Prince, 1986

The colour purple has long been associated with royalty and nobility. Its regal status dates back to ancient times, beginning with the famed Phoenician dye known as Tyrian Purple. This luxurious dye, extracted from the spiny dye-murex sea snail, was incredibly costly to produce, making it a symbol of wealth and power.

That exclusivity changed in 1856, thanks to a happy accident by eighteen-year-old British chemistry student William Henry Perkin. While attempting to synthesize quinine, he instead created the first synthetic aniline dye—a brilliant purple shade he called mauveine. The industrial production of purple had begun, and mauve quickly took the fashion world by storm.

One modern icon forever linked with the colour was Prince Rogers Nelson—simply known as Prince. The legendary American artist was a masterful multi-instrumentalist and a pioneer of the Minneapolis sound, blending funk rock, synth-pop, and new wave. His tribute tartan, named after his iconic 1984 anthem “Purple Rain”, features his signature hue. Fittingly, purple is also the colour for Epilepsy Awareness Day (also known as Purple Day)—a cause close to Prince’s heart, as he suffered from the condition during childhood. 💜 🤍 💜 🤍 💜

It's almost showtime - get into that costume, Prince Piggy!

Wheek! Wheek!