In part one and part two of our look at the history of roses and Valentine’s Day we saw what a rose is, where it grows indigenously and the symbolic value that has been placed on it in ancient Western cultures.
Now we’ll see how this culturally significant blossom began to take on the place of the holiday flower that most commonly represents love at Valentine’s Day.
Roses in Early Christianity
Early Christians saw a mirror of the five wounds of Christ suffered before his execution in the five petals of the rose but their leaders were afraid to take the rose as a symbol because it was of such importance to the Roman culture that persecuted them. Nonetheless, early Christian martyrs began to be symbolized by the rose — its red colour matching their blood. Throughout this period of time roses also began to be associated with the Virgin Mary and, ultimately, an unofficial symbol of the Christian faith for many worshippers.
Roses Across Europe
Even after the fall of the Roman Empire the importance of roses continued to resonant across Europe. England’s (and, later, the United States’) national flower is the rose, rose windows (made up of five segments to echo a rose) formed the basis of many Gothic Era building designs and the red rose came to be a symbol of socialism (and social democracy) throughout almost every nation in Europe following the Second World War. Echoing its roots in Christian tradition, the celebration of St. George’s Day in Catalonia sees people exchanging red roses as gifts that symbolize friendship or love.
Although they were always guaranteed a place in popular culture due to their importance to Christianity and Classical Greek and Roman traditions, roses really began to rise in popularity throughout the 1800s. The British Empire’s presence in China gave Western Europe access to perpetually blooming roses hybridized and enjoyed in the East.
Their growing commercial success in 19th century Europe will show how roses came to be so closely related to Valentine’s Day when we continue in the following part.
