Many different cultures and traditions give special meanings to the rose, but these meanings are not always fully understood. These meanings are part of the language of flowers, where the color and arrangement of roses can change their meaning. For example, red roses symbolize true love, blue roses represent mystery, white roses stand for innocence or purity, black roses are linked to death, yellow roses mean friendship, and orange roses express passion.

In religion

In ancient Greece, the rose was closely linked to the goddess Aphrodite. In the Iliad, Aphrodite uses the "immortal oil of the rose" to protect the body of Hector. The old Greek poet Ibycus praises a young man by saying Aphrodite cared for him "among rose blossoms." The Greek writer Pausanias, who lived in the second century AD, connects the rose to the story of Adonis. In The Golden Ass, a Roman novel from ancient times, the goddess Isis, who is linked to Venus, tells the main character, Lucius, who has turned into a donkey, to eat rose petals from a crown worn by a priest during a religious ceremony to return to human form.

In Song of Songs 2:1-2, the Jewish people are compared to a rose that remains beautiful among thorns, though some translations mention a "lily among thorns." The Zohar, a Jewish text, uses a "thirteen-petalled rose" to represent the thirteen attributes of Divine Mercy listed in Exodus 34:6-7. Roses and rosettes were also used to symbolize royalty, Israel, and were included in wedding wreaths for the bridegroom in ancient times.

After Christianity became the main religion in the Roman Empire, the rose was connected to the Virgin Mary. This symbol led to the creation of the rosary and other prayers in Christianity. Since the 1400s, the Franciscans have used a "Crown Rosary of the Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary." In the 1400s and 1500s, the Carthusians promoted religious ideas tied to the rose symbol and rose gardens. In Albrecht Dürer’s painting The Feast of the Rosary (1506), the Virgin Mary is shown giving rose garlands to worshippers. The Rose Cross, which includes a rose on a Christian cross, is the name of the secret religious group called Rosicrucianism.

In Iran and nearby lands, rose gardens with geometric designs have a long history, often featuring roses prominently. In the poetic form called the ghazal, the beauty of the rose inspires the nightingale’s longing song, a theme found in the works of the poet Hafez.

In Sufism, the image of a lover and beloved became a way to describe the Sufi mystic’s search for divine love. For example, the Sufi teacher Ibn Arabi connects the rose to the beloved’s blushing cheek and to the names and qualities of God.

Other examples of rose symbolism in Sufism include:
• The Sufi master Jilani is called "the Rose of Baghdad," and his religious group, the Qadiriyya, uses the rose as its symbol.
• Two important Sufi books are The Rose Garden by Saadi and The Rose Garden of Secrets by Mahmud Shabistari.

In Europe

The rose is England's national flower. This tradition began during the English civil wars of the fifteenth century, known as the Wars of the Roses. During these wars, a red rose symbolized the House of Lancaster, and a white rose symbolized the House of York. The Tudor dynasty later created the Tudor rose, which combined both the red and white roses. This symbol was shown in Shakespeare's play Richard III. A traditional ballad called "The Rose of England" (Child 166) describes how the Earl of Richmond (who later became Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty) took the crown. In this story, the "red rose" represents Henry.

William Shakespeare mentioned plants and spices about 775 times in his works. Among these, he wrote about the rose most often, about 100 times.

In 1871, the England national rugby union team and the Rugby Football Union chose the red rose as their symbol. Since then, the rose has been on players' uniforms.

The red rose is also the symbol of the UK Labour Party.

In northeastern Spain, Catalans have traditionally celebrated Saint George's Day on April 23. This day honors Saint George (Sant Jordi), the patron saint of Catalonia. It is also known as "Day of Lovers" (dia dels enamorats), when people give blood-red roses to their loved ones.

In North America

In 1986, the rose was chosen as the national floral emblem of the United States. It is also the state flower of five U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

• Iowa: The wild rose became the state flower in 1896.
• North Dakota: The wild prairie rose was named the official state flower in 1907. The colors green and pink had been chosen earlier by the first graduating class of the University of North Dakota in 1889.
• Georgia: The Cherokee rose (R. laevigata) was selected as the state’s official floral emblem in 1916.
• New York: The rose was adopted as the state flower in 1955. The law stated that the rose could be in any color or combination of colors found in the flower.
• Oklahoma: In 2004, Oklahoma chose a new type of rose called the Oklahoma rose as its state flower.

Portland, Oregon, has been known as the "City of Roses" since 1888. The city has held an annual Rose Festival since 1905. It is also famous for its International Rose Test Garden.

Pasadena, California, is also called the "City of Roses." The city has held the Tournament of Roses Parade since 1890. Since 1902, the parade has been linked to the Rose Bowl Game, which is now played at the city’s Rose Bowl stadium, built in 1922.

In April 2011, NASA celebrated the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope by sharing an image of spiral galaxies Arp 273 arranged in a shape that looks like a rose.

The red rose is part of the official logo of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and represents socialism.

In 1930, Rosa acicularis (the wild rose or prickly rose) was chosen as the official provincial flower of Alberta, Canada. The idea was first suggested by an Edmonton newspaper editor. Women’s Institutes shared the idea with the Department of Education, and Alberta’s schoolchildren made the final choice.

The Wildrose Party, a political group that no longer exists, was named after Alberta’s official flower.

Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, Mexico, is nicknamed the "City of Roses" (Ciudad de las Rosas).

Socialism

Since the 1880s, the red rose has been a symbol of socialism. This connection began because red was linked to socialism since at least 1848. After the French Revolution of 1848, socialists wanted the red flag to become the national flag. However, republicans won, and the French tricolor flag remained the national flag. As a compromise, the temporary government decided that members of the government and other officials would wear red rosettes on their clothing and place them on flagpoles as a sign of unity and remembrance.

During the Paris Commune in 1871, the red flag became strongly tied to socialism when it was used as the flag of the Communards’ short-lived government. After the Paris Commune ended, German Chancellor Bismarck, fearing the growing power of socialists in Germany, had parliament pass the Anti-Socialist laws to stop the activities of the Social Democratic Party. These laws banned the display of symbols used by the Social Democratic Party. To avoid the law, social democrats wore small red ribbons in their buttonholes. However, these actions led to arrests and jail sentences. Later, social democrats began using red rosebuds instead. These actions also led to arrests and jail sentences. A judge ruled that individuals can wear any flower they choose, but when socialists wear red rosebuds together, it becomes a symbol of their party.

Because of the Anti-Socialist laws, which stopped social democratic activities, many socialists in Germany were fined, imprisoned, or forced to leave the country. These exiled socialists spread the red rose symbol of socialism across Europe and to the United States. One of these exiles, Johann Most, first went to England and later moved to the United States, where he carried the red rosebud symbol with him. In 1887, he wore a red rosebud in his lapel during speeches supporting eight people who were convicted in the Haymarket Affair, showing solidarity with other socialists. In France, wearing red flowers like red carnations or red roses became common during ceremonies at the Communards’ Wall, which honored those who died during the collapse of the Paris Commune. By the 1910s, the red rose was widely recognized as a symbol of the socialist movement.

The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives at New York University state that the rose has always been an important symbol with anti-authoritarian meanings. The rose is used to represent the idea that “a rose is laid on a grave,” showing the end of a struggle. The rose became a popular political symbol among socialist and social democratic parties in Western Europe after World War II. The image of a clenched fist holding a rose is used by the Socialist International and many of its member parties. The French Socialist Party (PS) was the first to use this symbol in 1971, drawing from imagery popular during left-wing movements of that time. Centre-leaning and moderate political parties often use a red rose alone, avoiding the revolutionary image of the raised fist. The British Labour Party has used a red rose as its symbol since the late 1980s, replacing its previous symbol, the red flag.

Allegorically in literature

The rose is a common symbol in literature, often used to represent different ideas. In William Blake's poem "The Sick Rose," the rose stands for love or passion. It is described as red and dark, but it is now sick because a worm has harmed it. In the 13th-century French poem "Romance of the Rose," the rose represents a woman who is the focus of a lover's attention. When the lover plucks the rose, it shows he has won her affection. In William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily," the rose may symbolize Emily's lost lover, who is now dried and preserved, or it could represent a hidden secret. In a note at the end of Umberto Eco's book The Name of the Rose, he explains that the rose is a symbol with so many meanings that it is difficult to describe its exact significance.

Relationships

The term bara (薔薇), which means "rose" in Japanese, was once used in Japan as an insult for men who love other men, similar to the English word "pansy." In the 1960s, the term was used again in a new way by Japanese gay media. For example, the 1961 book Ba-ra-kei: Ordeal by Roses included photographs of homosexual writer Yukio Mishima by photographer Eikoh Hosoe. Later, in 1971, the first gay magazine in Asia, Barazoku (薔薇族, meaning "rose tribe"), was created. The use of roses as a symbol for love between men may come from a Greek story about King Laius, who had relationships with boys under rose trees. Since the 2000s, bara has been used by people outside Japan to describe Japanese and non-Japanese gay media that show love and relationships between masculine men. Roses are also linked to Eros, the Greek god of love and sex, who is said to have created the first rose on Earth. In ancient Greece, roses were symbols of relationships between older men and younger boys, as seen in poems by writers like Solon and Philostratos.

A red rose is usually given to someone you love, showing romantic feelings. Wedding bouquets often include white roses, which symbolize purity. Red is traditionally linked to passion, while white represents innocence. A yellow rose, on the other hand, is a gift for someone you care about as a friend, not romantically. Because of this, yellow roses are also used as symbols for people who do not experience romantic love.

Other

The "White Rose" (German: die Weiße Rose) was a group that resisted the Nazi government without using violence during World War II. It was led by students and a professor at LMU Munich. The group passed out secret leaflets and painted messages on walls to encourage people to oppose the Nazi regime. Their activities began in Munich on June 27, 1942, and ended when the main members were arrested by the Gestapo on February 18, 1943.

During questioning by the Gestapo, Hans Scholl explained that the name "White Rose" might have come from a 19th-century poem by German poet Clemens Brentano. Some people also thought the name might have been inspired by a verse from Cuban poet Jose Marti, "Cultivo una rosa blanca," or a German novel titled Die Weiße Rose by B. Traven, the author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Hans Scholl and Alex Schmorell had read this novel. They wrote that the white rose symbolized purity and innocence in the face of evil.