Cultural meaning of roses

To assign a symbolism to flowers, the so-called flower language goes back many centuries. In the past, it had even greater significance because with the right flower you could communicate feelings that were otherwise strictly prohibited by etiquette. Today, still many people know the language of flowers and the meaning of red roses is maybe the most popular one, because for centuries they are considered a symbol of love and romance in many cultures.

The symbolig of red roses is generally understood as love and passion. But even within the red roses there are differences of meanings, depending on the individual shades of the roses. A deep red rose is said to mean that one is ready to commit and can symbolize a deeper commitment. Lighter red roses, on the other hand, represent passion and desire.

Where does the meaning come from?

According to legend, Eve secretly took a rose with her when she was expelled from Paradise, thus bringing it into our worldly gardens. The linking of the rose with love for Adam and deep feeling has run through the entire history of time ever since. In the Middle Ages, the rose was considered a proven love remedy, in Roman mythology it was attributed to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and in Indian Tantra the rose symbolizes the heart.

Roses have always had a great significance. Already the ancient Egyptians used them as an offering to their gods. Roses have even been found in Egyptian tombs. This may indicate that they were probably used in burial rituals. After that, roses were mentioned in history books as early as 551 BC, and the Chinese imperial library contained books about roses. In Christianity, roses then became a symbol of Christ ‘s crucifixion and resurrection, with the red and white rose side by side becoming synonymous with Jesus‘ sacrifice. Although the rose had not yet evolved into the meaningful flower it is today, the English bred roses for their beauty in the 15th century.

Color meaning

In fact, each color of the rose has a different meaning. These can be used to reveal the different levels of rose symbolism.

Red: love, romance

Pink: Gratitude, admiration

Yellow: Warmth, happiness, jealousy

White: purity, grace, young love

Purple: enchantment, love at first sight

Blue: unattainability, the love that is not meant to be

At the very beginning, we started to disassemble flowers into all their individual parts. We sorted and analyzed the components, built new shapes from them, scanned them and played with them. So we followed very much the visual component. After a short time, we realized that we also have other senses that can be used to perceive the flower. We started to caress ourselves with the flower, to tickle us, to see which parts of the flower felt how, we smelled it, heard what sounds it could make and tried how the components tasted.

We found that the different touches, tastes, sounds and smells evoked different emotions in us. Memories of places, songs, people, etc. came up. This led us to the idea of making the flower emotional and finding out what it evokes in different people. So we went under the surface and thought about guiding questions for this.