
What is the ‘cherry blossoms’ tradition?
In India, where the flower is a symbol of fertility, it’s believed to have magical properties.
“The flower is used as a talisman, to protect people from evil spirits,” said Rajendra Bhushan, a senior research scholar at the Centre for Scientific Research on Social Sciences (CSRS) in New Delhi.
“People are told that the flower will protect them from evil forces, and also from sickness.”
It is also believed that the flowers are associated with protection from cold, and protection from darkness.
“We have very strong cultural ties with the flower,” said Anurag Gopalakrishnan, a professor at the Institute of Asian Studies in New York.
“There are stories of the flower in the ancient scriptures and it’s also a symbol that’s used in our religion.”
But the history of the rose has its own complexities.
The name rose means ‘rose of the world’ in Sanskrit.
The ancient Greeks also called it the ‘white rose’, which was thought to bring good luck and prosperity.
But the flower itself has been around for more than 2,000 years, and the word rose is derived from the Latin word rubea meaning ‘white’.
According to legend, the rose rose was given to a young girl named Asana who was looking for a new home.
Asana asked the goddesses to give her the rose and the name ‘rose’, which means ‘to be happy’.
Asana loved the rose, but she soon became pregnant with the next daughter.
After the baby was born, the goddess Asana gave the baby the rose as a sign that she would give the baby to her own daughter.
According to tradition, Asana and her daughter, Kala, had a son named Lakshmi.
When Lakshmi was born in her early 20s, Asaas son, Lakshmi, wanted to take the rose with him to meet her.
“It was the last straw that broke the chain,” Gopalapuram said.
“He went off and stole the rose.”
After Lakshmi’s death, Lakshim, who had been sleeping in a cave nearby, took the rose from Asa and returned home.
Gopalam told Al Jazeera the story of how Lakshmi stole the flower.
“When I was about 11 years old, Lakshmini came to visit me at my home.
I was very happy for her because I wanted to give the rose to her,” he said.
However, when Lakshmi returned, she stole the whole rose and returned with it.
“I don’t know what happened to the rose after she took it, but we later found it at a farm,” he added.
“So, it was very lucky for me to have it in my home.”
According to Gopalavacchia, the story is an ancient legend, and no one has ever found the original flower.
G. K. Rajendran, a retired professor of anthropology and comparative religion at the University of New Delhi, believes that the rose was a symbol for protection and healing.
“For the rose symbol to have a special significance, it needs to be symbolic of a person or a place where a person could be reborn,” he told Alja.
The story goes that as a young boy, Lakshma used to sit on the flower and take it to her mother, who was the mother of a famous sage, who lived in a mountain village called Kasturi.
“She would always say, ‘My father was the Sage.
You will find him in the mountains,'” Gopal said.
When she grew up, Lakshm had a very good memory.
“A person could recite all the stories of her father and all the things that he had done and said, and he would always remember her,” G. Rajendra said.
The rose rose is traditionally painted with a red, blue, yellow and green colour scheme.
In the 19th century, the art of painting rose was popular, and artists like J.M. van Dyck and Claude Monet used the rose in their work.
The roses were used as currency in India until the 1970s, when the government decided to ban the practice.
In recent years, rose prices have started to rise again, and many people are returning to the tradition of painting roses to symbolise good luck.
“My mother is the one who was very active in the tradition.
She painted the rose on the walls and on the mantelpiece,” said Asana.
“Sometimes I used to paint the rose at night and at weekends.”
Gopal, the professor, said that when Lakshma returned to her home, she used to put a white paper on the rose so that people could know when she was coming home.
“If people came and went, they would look at the paper,” he explained.
“They would ask her to paint her own face.”
According the tradition, Lakshmas children often went to her house