Rose symbolism
Various folk cultures and traditions assign symbolic meaning to the rose, though these are seldom understood in-depth.
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).
[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.
"[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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 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.
[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.
The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi party regime.
They also wrote that the symbol of the white rose was intended to represent purity and innocence in the face of evil.
The vivid red, semi-double Rosa gallica was "the ancestor of all the roses of medieval Europe". [ 1 ]
