A black ribbon is a symbol of remembrance or mourning. It is often worn or put on a public display to express consolation.

Sign of mourning

Similar to a black armband, the black ribbon is a public display of grief. Individuals or organizations display the ribbon in commemoration of victims after specific incidents.

Some examples include:

• Black ribbons were worn and placed on doors after the May 1992 Westray Mine Disaster in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada.^[1]
• The ribbon was worn in the United Kingdom after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.^[2]
• Students distributed black ribbons after the April 2007 Virginia Tech shooting at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.^[3]
• The black ribbon has been used by the journalists in the Philippines to condemn the killings of journalists on the Maguindanao massacre.^[4]
• The 2013 London Marathon runners were given a black ribbon to wear to mark the Boston Marathon bombing.^[5]

The search engine Google, which often changes the company's logo to a Google Doodle commemorating timely events, has used the black ribbon to mark a number of incidents. These include the Charlie Hebdo shooting,^[6][7] the charter flight crash in Colombia in November 2016,^[8] the 2017 Portugal wildfires,^[9] and the death of Queen Elizabeth II.^[10] April 9, 2017, Google Arabic displayed a black ribbon as a mark of respect and sympathy for victims of 2017 Palm Sunday church bombings in Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt.^[11][12]

To show sympathy for victims of the 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Turkish Wikipedia and Apple's website homepage in Turkey changed to show a glowing black ribbon atop a dark background.^[13]

Other meanings

• Melanoma awareness. Sometimes shown as black with white polka dots.
• In Argentina, a black ribbon, sometimes with the national flag's colours in both ends, is used to raise awareness about the victims of subversive terrorism.
• By the Anarchist Black Ribbon Campaign, a free speech campaign started in 1996 inspired by the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign.^[14]
• During the 6th International Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) the black ribbon was worn worldwide to show support and promote awareness of the Palestinian struggle.
• In India, 2011 to show support to Anna Hazare who was fasting to fight against corruption by government.
• Worn by people who have suffered from any intentions of self harming on November 30 of every year.
• In New Zealand, a black ribbon with a koru symbol supports an end to domestic violence.^[15] In Australia, a black ribbon raises awareness against domestic abuse of men and fathers.

In fiction

• In the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, the black ribbon is instead worn by vampires to prove, in the vein of the real-world blue ribbon badge, that they have sworn never to drink blood again.

Variations

• 
  TortureProtest.org black ribbon campaign
• 
  Melanoma Awareness Ribbon Alternative with White Polka Dots
•