In
the Far East the rose stood for virtue, in Egypt for
silence and in Rome, festivity.
During the twelfth century it was a papal custom to bestow
golden roses on foreign visitors to whom the Pope wished
to convey a special blessing. This special golden rose was
blessed on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In time, being so
ostentatious, the custom died out.
The Empress Josephine spent a fortune
on old fashioned roses financing expeditions abroad. Even
when at war the Prince Regent gave orders that any plants
intercepted at sea by English ships were to be allowed
safe passage to her. The Empress Josephine, was born in
June and her second name was Rose.
To dream of roses is fortunate,
foretelling success in love, though according to one
version only if the roses are red, to dream of white ones
is regarded as unlucky.
Legend has it in Greece that the first
roses were white and they were turned red from the blood
of Adonis when wounded by a wild boar or of Aphrodite's
whose foot was pierced by a rose briar as she ran to help
him. For Moslems it was the blood of Mohammed. An old
Christian legend says that the Crown of Thorns was made of
rose briars and that when Christ's blood fell from his
forehead to the ground, red roses sprang up at the foot of
the cross.
In
the Far East the rose stood for virtue, in Egypt for
silence and in Rome, festivity.