February 14 is approaching, that significant date of the year in which Valentine's Day is celebrated. For some, the day of love, while for others and in some parts of the world, it is the day of friendship. Beyond the different ways of celebrating this date around the planet, there is something common to all of them: flowers.
Perfect companions to express feelings that can say much more even than words. Because the least known is knowing that, behind each flower and even its color, there is a hidden meaning.
A symbolism that, especially on Valentine's Day, can help to say with flowers much more than with words.
Perfect companions to express feelings, in addition, can say much more even than words. Because the least known is knowing that, behind each flower and even its color, there is a hidden meaning.
A symbolism that, especially on Valentine's Day, can help to say with flowers much more than with words.
3 legends for sending red roses
Why are roses called roses if they are red?
Although there are more than 30 thousand varieties of roses, the red rose is the most commercialized and widespread, and it is worth asking, why are they called roses if they are red?
The answer has to do with the etymology of the word "rose", which derives from the classical Greek "rhodéa", whose meaning was "that which gives off an odor, that which has fragrance".
From there, the term passed to Latin "ródja" and, from the 13th century to Spanish as "rosa", so that, etymologically, when we speak of rose, we are not referring only to the color, but to the flower that gives off the most "intense fragrance".
Secret weddings in Ancient Rome
Although Valentine's Day is often seen as a holiday to encourage consumption, the day of lovers, from a historical point of view, has a long tradition dating back to the Roman Empire. At the time of Emperor Claudius II, he decided to prohibit marriages between young people because he thought they would feel freer or disengaged to join the army and undertake military careers.
However, a Roman priest named Valentinus decided to oppose this imperial rule and began to secretly marry all the young lovers who came to him.
When the emperor discovered the ruse, Valentinus was denounced, arrested, and condemned to death. In his "green mile", legend has it that Valentine fell in love with the jailer's daughter, to whom, before dying, he declared his love with a red rose.
Later, when Christianity became hegemonic and began to Christianize pagan festivities, it associated the legend of the martyr St. Valentine to the pagan fertility festival called "lupercalia", which was celebrated on February 14, and that is the origin of sending red roses on Valentine's Day.
Aphrodite and Dionysus, gods of roses
Sending red roses has always been associated in the West with love, and thus, Greek mythology, the cradle of Western civilization, left for posterity several legends about the origin of red roses:
They say that when Aphrodite was born from the foam of the sea, as proof of her power, she created a flower in her image and likeness, a white rose, then, in the celebration of some bacchanalia, Dionysus, the god of wine, poured a few drops of wine on the pure white flower, leaving it dyed red forever.
Another version tells that Dionysus was chasing a nymph who in her flight was trapped in a bramble bush. Dionysus, dazzled by the nymph's blushing cheeks when she was discovered, covered the bush with flowers that imitated the beauty of the nymph's cheeks.
And you, what flower do you choose to show your feelings? Let us know!