Various folk cultures and traditions assign symbolic meaning to the rose, though these are seldom understood in-depth. Examples of deeper meanings lie within the language of flowers, and how a rose may have a different meaning in arrangements. Examples of common meanings of different coloured roses are: true love (red), mystery (blue), innocence or purity (white), death (black), friendship (yellow), and passion (orange).
In ancient Greece, the rose was closely associated with the goddess Aphrodite. [2] [3] In the Iliad , Aphrodite protects the body of Hector using the "immortal oil of the rose" [4] [2] and the archaic Greek lyric poet Ibycus praises a beautiful youth saying that Aphrodite nursed him "among rose blossoms". [5] The second-century AD Greek travel writer Pausanias associates the rose with the story of Adonis [6] Book Eleven of the ancient Roman novel The Golden Ass by Apuleius contains a scene in which the goddess Isis, who is identified with Venus, instructs the main character, Lucius, who has been transformed into a donkey, to eat rose petals from a crown of roses worn by a priest as part of a religious procession in order to regain his humanity. [3]
In the Song of Songs 2:1-2, the Jewish people are compared with a rose, remaining beautiful amongst thorns, [7] although some translations instead refer to a "lily among thorns." [8] The Zohar uses a "thirteen-petalled rose" as a symbol for the thirteen attributes of Divine Mercy [7] named in Exodus 34:6-7. [9] The rose and rosettes were also used to symbolize royalty and Israel, [10] and were used in wreaths for the bridegroom at weddings in Biblical times. [11]
Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire, the rose became identified with the Virgin Mary. [12] [3] The rose symbol eventually led to the creation of the rosary and other devotional prayers in Christianity. [13] [3] Ever since the 1400s, the Franciscans have had a Crown Rosary of the Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary. [3] In the 1400s and 1500s, the Carthusians promoted the idea of sacred mysteries associated with the rose symbol and rose gardens. [3] Albrecht Dürer's painting The Feast of the Rosary (1506) depicts the Virgin Mary distributing garlands of roses to worshippers. [3]
The cultivation of geometrical gardens, in which the rose has often held pride of place, has a long history in Iran and surrounding lands. [14] [15] In the lyric ghazal, it is the beauty of the rose that provokes the longing song of the nightingale [16] – an image prominent, for example, in the poems of Hafez. [17]
In turn, the imagery of lover and beloved became a type of the Sufi mystic's quest for divine love, so that Ibn Arabi, for example, aligns the rose with the beloved's blushing cheek on the one hand and, on the other, with the divine names and attributes. [18]
Other well-known examples of rose symbolism in Sufism include:
The rose is the national flower of England, a usage dating back to the English civil wars of the fifteenth century (later called Wars of the Roses), in which a red rose represented the House of Lancaster, and a white rose represented the House of York. [19] The Tudor dynasty created the Tudor rose, which united both the white and the red roses, a symbolism dramatized by Shakespeare in his play Richard III . [20] [21] The traditional ballad "The Rose of England" (Child 166) recounts the seizure of the crown by Earl of Richmond (who became Henry VII of England, the founder of the Tudor dynasty), using the "red rose" as an allegory for Henry. [22]
The England national rugby union team and Rugby Football Union adopted the red rose as their symbol in 1871, and the rose has appeared on players' kit ever since. [23]
The red rose is the symbol for the UK Labour Party. [24]
Catalans in the north eastern of Spain have traditionally celebrated Saint George's Day (April 23) – which commemorates Saint George (Sant Jordi), the patron saint of the Catalonia region; as the dia dels enamorats ("lovers' day"), on which lovers exchange blood-red roses. [25]
In 1986, the rose was adopted as the national floral emblem of the United States. [26] [27]
It is the state flower of five U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Portland, Oregon has counted "City of Roses" among its nicknames (see roses in Portland, Oregon) since 1888, [32] and has held an annual Rose Festival since 1905. [33] The city is also known for its International Rose Test Garden. [32]
Pasadena, California – also nicknamed the "City of Roses" – has held the annual Tournament of Roses Parade since 1890, and 1902 the Parade has been held in conjunction with the Rose Bowl Game (which is now played at the city's Rose Bowl stadium, built in 1922). [34] [35]
In April 2011, the U.S. government's space program agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), celebrated the Hubble Space Telescope's 21st anniversary by releasing an image of spiral galaxies Arp 273 positioned in a rose-like shape. [36]
The red rose is also part of the official logo of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), [37] being a symbol of socialism generally. [38]
In 1930, Rosa acicularis (the wild rose or prickly rose) was adopted as the official provincial flower of the Canadian province of Alberta. The suggestion that a provincial floral emblem be adopted by first made by an Edmonton newspaper editor; "the Women's Institutes took up the suggestion and passed it on to the Department of Education, and the province's schoolchildren made the final choice." [39] [40]
The Wildrose Party, a now-defunct Albertan political party, was named after the province's official flower. [41]
The Mexican city of Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, is nicknamed the "City of Roses" (Ciudad de las Rosas). [42] [43]
Since the 1880s, the red rose has been a symbol of socialism. [44] [45] The origin of the rose as a symbol of socialism relates to its association with the color red. Since at least 1848, red was associated with socialism. [46] Following the French Revolution of 1848, the socialists pushed to have the revolution's red flag be designated the national flag. [47] The republicans, however, prevailed and the French tricolor flag remained the national flag. The provisional government as a compromise decreed that: "As a sign of rallying and as a remembrance of recognition for the last act of the popular revolution, members of the provisional government and other authorities will wear the red rosette, which will also be placed at the flagstaff." [48]
During the Paris Commune in 1871, the red flag solidified its link with socialism when it flew as the flag of the Communards' short-lived government. [49] Following the collapse of the Paris Commune, German Chancellor Bismarck out of fear of the growing strength of the socialists in Germany had parliament pass the Anti-Socialist laws to suppress the activities of the Social Democratic Party. As part of the Anti-Socialist laws in 1878, the display of emblems of the Social Democratic Party were banned. To circumvent the law, social democrats wore red bits of ribbons in their buttonholes. These actions, however, led to arrest and jail sentences. Subsequently, red rosebuds were substituted by social democrats. These actions also led to arrest and jail sentences. The judge ruled that in general everyone has a right to wear any flower as suits their taste, but when socialists as a group wear red rosebuds, it becomes a party emblem. [44]
Due to the Anti-Socialist laws, which banned social democratic activities, hundreds of socialists were fined, imprisoned, or exiled from Germany. [50] Subsequently, the German exiles spread the red rose symbol of socialism across Europe and to the United States. The socialist Johann Most was one of these German socialist exiles, who first went to England, and then later went to the United States and carried the red rosebud symbol with him. The red rosebud was worn in his lapel in 1887 during speeches he gave in support of the eight individuals convicted in the Haymarket Affair in a sign of socialist solidarity. [45] Similarly, the wearing of a red flower, such as a red carnation or red rose, became common during the commemoration ceremonies in France at the Communards' Wall which remembered the victims of the collapse of the Paris Commune. [51] By the 1910s, the red rose was universally identified as a symbol of the socialist movement. [52] [53]
The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives at New York University states that the rose "has always been an important symbol with anti-authoritarian associations." [54] The rose is used to show the end after the means, meaning "lay a rose on the grave". The rose symbol became popular as a political logo among socialist and social democratic political parties in post-World War II Western Europe. [54] The fist and rose, in which the rose is held by a clenched fist, is used by the Socialist International "and many of its member parties". [55] The French Socialist Party (PS) was the first party to adopt it in 1971, using imagery popular with left-wing movements of the era. [56] Centre-leaning and moderate parties tend to use a red rose alone, doing away with the revolutionary heritage of the raised fist. [57] The British Labour Party has used a red rose as its symbol since the late 1980s; the rose replaced the party's previous symbol, the red flag. [58] [59]
The rose in an allegorical sense appears many times in literature. In William Blake's poem "The Sick Rose" the rose is a symbol for love or passion, it is crimson and dark but now sick, the worm has infected it. The rose in the popular 13th-century French poem "Romance of the Rose" is a personification of the woman, the object of the lover's attentions, and his plucking of the rose represents his conquest of her. In the title of William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" the rose has a number of possible meanings: as Emily's lover now dried and preserved, or a secret as per sub rosa. In a postscript to The Name of the Rose , Umberto Eco discusses the reason behind the title to his 1983 novel: "because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left".
A red rose is a gift primarily given to a love interest, symbolizing a marital or romantic relationship. Wedding bouquets often include white roses, symbolizing virtue. Red is traditionally seen as a symbol of passion, while white is a symbol of purity and innocence.
The "White Rose" (German die Weiße Rose) was a World War II non-violent intellectual resistance group in the Third Reich led by a group of students and a professor at the University of Munich. The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi party regime. Their activities started in Munich on 27 June 1942, and ended with the arrest of the core group by the Gestapo on 18 February 1943.
Under Gestapo interrogation, Hans Scholl gave several explanations for the origin of the name "The White Rose," and suggested he may have chosen it while he was under the emotional influence of a 19th-century poem with the same name by German poet Clemens Brentano. It was also speculated that the name might have been taken from either the Cuban poet, Jose Marti's verse "Cultivo una rosa blanca" or a German novel Die Weiße Rose ( The White Rose ), written by B. Traven, the German author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre . Hans Scholl and Alex Schmorell had read this novel. They also wrote that the symbol of the white rose was intended to represent purity and innocence in the face of evil. [60]
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae, or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing, or trailing, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Their flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, and Northwest Africa. Species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies. Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses to climbers that can reach seven meters in height. Different species hybridize easily, and this has been used in the development of the wide range of garden roses.
The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys, is a common heraldic charge in the (stylized) shape of a lily. Most notably, the fleur-de-lis (⚜️) is depicted on the traditional coat of arms of France that was used from the High Middle Ages until the French Revolution in 1792, and then again in brief periods in the 19th century. This design still represents France and the House of Bourbon in the form of marshalling in the arms of Spain, Quebec, and Canada — for example.
The State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also simply known as the Soviet flag or the Red Banner, was a red flag with two communist symbols displayed in the canton: a gold hammer and sickle topped off by a red five-point star bordered in gold. The flag's design and symbolism are derived from several sources, but emerged during the Russian Revolution. It has also come to serve as the standard symbol representing communism as a whole, recognized as such in international circles, even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The hammer and sickle is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between agricultural and industrial workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing workers and the sickle representing the peasants.
In politics, a red flag is predominantly a symbol of left-wing ideologies, including socialism, communism, anarchism, and the labour movement. The originally empty or plain red flag has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution (1789–1799). The red flag and red as a political colour are the oldest symbols of socialism.
Political colours are colours used to represent a political ideology, movement or party, either officially or unofficially. They represent the intersection of colour symbolism and political symbolism. Politicians making public appearances will often identify themselves by wearing rosettes, flowers, ties or ribbons in the colour of their political party. Parties in different countries with similar ideologies sometimes use similar colours. As an example the colour red symbolises left-wing ideologies in many countries, while the colour blue is often used for conservatism, the colour yellow is most commonly associated with liberalism and right-libertarianism, and Green politics is named after the ideology's political colour. The political associations of a given colour vary from country to country, and there are exceptions to the general trends, for example red has historically been associated with Christianity, but over time gained association with leftist politics, while the United States differs from other countries in that conservatism is associated with red and liberalism with blue. Mass media has driven a standardisation of colour by political party, to simplify messaging, while historically the colour a candidate chose to identify with could have been chosen based on other factors such as family or regional variations.
A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. It has been widely used in flags, state emblems, monuments, ornaments, and logos.
The White Rose of York is a white heraldic rose which was adopted in the 14th century as a heraldic badge of the royal House of York. In modern times, it is used more broadly as a symbol of Yorkshire.
The Red Rose of Lancaster was the heraldic badge adopted by the royal House of Lancaster in the 14th century. In modern times it symbolises the county of Lancashire. The exact species or cultivar which it represents is thought to be Rosa gallica officinalis.
The raised fist, or the clenched fist, is a long-standing image of mixed meaning, often a symbol of solidarity, especially with a political movement. It is a common symbol representing a wide range of political ideologies, most notably socialism, communism, anarchism, and trade unionism, and can also be used as a salute expressing unity, strength, or resistance.
The Anti-Socialist Laws or Socialist Laws were a series of acts of the parliament of the German Empire, the first of which was passed on 19 October 1878 by the Reichstag lasting until 31 March 1881 and extended four times.
Two flags are in use in New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France. Up to 2010, the only flag used to represent New Caledonia was the flag of France, a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue, white, and red known to English speakers as the French Tricolour or simply the Tricolour. However, in July 2010, the Congress of New Caledonia voted in favour of a wish to fly the Kanak flag of the independence movement FLNKS alongside the French Tricolour. The wish, legally non-binding, proved controversial. A majority of New Caledonian communes, but not all, now fly both flags, the rest flying only the French Tricolour.
Red rose may refer to:
Socialist-style emblems usually follow a unique style consisting of communist symbolism. Although commonly referred to as coats of arms, most are not actually traditional heraldic achievements. Many communist governments purposely diverged from heraldic tradition in order to distance themselves from the monarchies that they usually replaced, with coats of arms being seen as symbols of the monarchs.
Communist symbolism represents a variety of themes, including revolution, the proletariat, the peasantry, agriculture, or international solidarity. The red flag, the hammer and sickle and the red star or variations thereof are some of the symbols adopted by communist movements, governments, and parties worldwide.
The Three Arrows is a social democratic political symbol associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), used in the late history of the Weimar Republic. First conceived for the SPD-dominated Iron Front as a symbol of the social democratic resistance against Nazism in 1932, it became an official symbol of the Party during the November 1932 German federal election, representing their opposition towards monarchism, Nazism, and communism.
The black-white-red flag, also known as the flag of the German Empire, the Imperial Flag or the Realm Flag, is a combination between the flag of Prussia and the flag of the Hanseatic League. Starting as the national flag of the North German Confederation, it would go on to be commonly used officially and unofficially under the nation-state of the German Reich, which existed from 1871 to 1945. After 1918, it was used as a political symbol by various organizations.
The fist and rose, sometimes called the rose in the fist or fist with a rose, is an emblem used or formerly used by a number of left-wing and center-left parties and political organizations around the world.
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ignored (help)M. Louis Blanc, en rédigeant le décret qui déclarait que le drapeau national était le drapeau tricolore, obtint d'y ajouter la phrase suivante : «Comme signe de ralliement et comme souvenir de reconnaissance pour le dernier acte de la révolution populaire, les membres du gouvernement provisoire et les autres autorités porteront la rosette rouge, laquelle sera placée aussi à la hampe du drapeau.»
red flag.