The red carpet is synonymous with celebrities, but its origins go back thousands of years

If, like the rest of us, you love nothing better than to watch your favourite celebrities arrive on the red carpet, a thought may have crossed your mind.

Why red? And why is there even a carpet?

Let's take a look at the history of the red carpet — where it began, its symbolism and why stars clamour for an invite to tread the famous crimson path.

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Firstly, the red carpet is not new. And we aren't talking decades or even hundreds of year, but thousands.

According to multiple sources, the Greek playwright Aeschylus first referred to a crimson carpet in his work, Agamemnon, which dates back to 458 BC.

In the play, he describes a mythical king, Agamemnon, arriving back from battle to find a "floor of crimson broideries" had been spread "for the King's path."

The idea was that his feet were not to touch the same ground as mere mortals. The play was a tragedy and the king wound up dead, but the idea of the red carpet was born.

Fast forward a couple of thousand years, when historians discovered a red carpet was used when the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, stepped off a riverboat in South Carolina in 1821.

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But it was the US railway that formally adopted the use of a red carpet in the early 1900s.

According to Time, after the 20th Century Limited Express from New York to Chicago was launched in 1902, a red carpet was rolled out at Grand Central Station in New York for passengers making their way to the train.

This period saw the start of phrases such as "roll out the red carpet." Advertising of the day even promised "red-carpet treatment" to passengers, who were paying for a level of luxury not seen before on US train travel.

The red carpet's jump to Hollywood has been traced to the October 18, 1922, premiere of the film Robin Hood.

The movie was opening at the brand new Egyptian Theatre, owned by Hollywood theatre magnate Sid Grauman.

He is credited with bringing the red carpet to Hollywood, where it was walked for the first time by the movie's star Douglas Fairbanks.

Another of his theatres, the famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre, went on to host the Academy Awards in the 1940s, but it wasn't until 1961 that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added a red carpet for the TV broadcast – even though it was in black and white.

By 1966, the Oscars ceremony was shown in colour for the first time and TV audiences got to see the red carpet in all of its glory.

Nowadays, the red carpet is synonymous with show business, and media outlets clamour to film and photogragh the "red carpet arrivals" of celebrities.

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Among the most famous red carpets is at the Cannes Film Festival, even though it wasn't always red.

According to the official Festival de Cannes website, the arrivals carpet was blue between 1946 and 1949, with red only adopted for the first time in 1984.

"When journalist Yves Mourousi was tasked with redesigning the walk up the steps, he took inspiration from the Oscars and its ceremonial red carpet," the website says.

"The decision was a hit: now almost 40 years later, the walk up the steps along the red carpet is considered one of the highlight events at the Festival de Cannes."

A red carpet is also a fixture of the world's oldest film festival – the Venice International Film Festival, which this year welcomed the likes of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman.

Another iconic red carpet is rolled out at New York's annual Met Gala, which stretches an astonishing 46 metres and up 60 stairs to reach the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But it is not always red. This year, the red was replaced with a green hue to reflect the theme, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.

Its last actual red carpet was in 2022.

While red carpets are still synonymous with celebrities and film premieres, nowadays just about anyone can hire or buy their own red carpet to feel like a movie star, even for just one night.

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