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Why Send Roses?

Posted on 23rd January 2012 in Valentines Day

Mixed RosesRoses are the traditional gift often associated with Valentines Day, but they’re sure to be well-received any time of year. But before you buy roses, do you know what message you’re sending?
The colour of a rose can have a very different meaning from what you intend them to say.
The language of colour has a long history of tradition we often associate colours with feelings for instance red with anger, here are the most widely recognised meanings associated with rose colours:

White Roses – Innocence, Purity, Secrecy, Reverence, Worthiness

White roses like bridal gowns symbolise innocence and purity. Giving white roses says that you believe that your intentions are pure. They also symbolise marriage and new beginnings which is why they are often used as bridal flowers.

Red Roses – Passion, Love, Respect, Courage, Congratulations

Red roses are classic and a popular choice since their message is an unmistakable expression of love. The colour red symbolises the blood flowing through the veins that flow to the heart. In society the heart is simultaneous with love and often romantic love.enduring romantic love and passion.

Pink Roses – Happiness, Romance, Admiration, Sweetness

There are many variations of pink roses and all uses of pink communicate sweetness and elegance. Light pink roses show happiness and admiration. If you want to send an expression of gratitude deep pink roses are perfect because they symbolise appreciation and thankfulness, they have also come to be associated with the fight against breast cancer.

Yellow Roses – Welcome or Welcome Back, Friendship, Caring, Joy

Yellow roses send a message of friendship, gladness and delight they are not the best if your intentions are romantic and long-lasting. Perfect for the new mother, graduate or newly engaged the yellow rose sends a message of joy and new beginnings.

Peach Roses – Gratitude, Appreciation, Sincerity, Modesty

Peach roses send a message of appreciation or gratitude and are also often sent as an expression of sympathy.

Orange or Coral Roses – Desire, Enthusiasm, Pride

Bright orange is a colour of warmth and energy and orange roses convey the desire that the sender feels for the recipient. Just as coral is a lighter tone than orange so are the feelings communicated by this colour rose. The coral rose still speaks to desire coupled with happiness.

Purple or Lilac Roses – Deep Adoration, Majestic, Opulent

Sending this colour rose says that you find the recipient enchanting. The light purple rose is a good choice if you want to express love at first sight.

Blue Roses – Impossible, Unattainable

Blue roses exist in fantasy but not in nature and are created artificially. The blue rose symbolises the unattainable or impossible.

Black Roses – New Beginnings, Rebirth

Although they do not exist in nature ‘black roses’ have come to symbolise death, however they can send a positive message of rebirth and new beginnings. Some roses are called black, but are actually just a dark shade of red, purple, or maroon.

 

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Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre

Posted on 17th January 2012 in Valentines Day

The Saint Valentine’s Day massacre is the name given to one of the most widely publicised cases of gang war in history. It is now an infamous incident was the1929 murder of 7 mob associates as part of a prohibition era conflict between two powerful criminal gangs in Chicago: the South Side Italian gang led by Al ‘Scarface’ Capone and the North Side Irish gang led by George ‘Bugs’ Moran. Former members of the Egan’s Rats gang were also suspected to have played a large role in the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, assisting Capone.

It is said that on February 14, 1929, a well planned massacre was executed inside a warehouse located at 2122 N. Clark Street, where seven of Moran’s men lost their lives.

Al Capone devised the horrific plan for the St Valentine’s Day massacre. The main objective for Capone was to eliminate arch rival Bugs Moran. The idea was to trick Moran and his gang to visit a warehouse on North Clark Street on the pretext of buying some whiskey at cheap price. At that time a team of six men – two to be disguised as police officers would conduct a routine raid and enter the warehouse. During which time Capone was to be out of view from Bugs and his gang.

As per plan, Capone’s men entered the warehouse. Two of them dressed as police officers while the remaining four in plain clothes. The two policemen asked Moran’s gang members to line up facing the wall. Moran’s gang consisting of seven members followed the instructions thinking that they were just harmless policemen who have come to raid the place. Immediately Capone’s men shot and killed the men with Thompson submachine guns and the seven men died on the spot.

In order to leave the place without raising suspicion, the men in plain clothes marched out of the warehouse with their hands raised. Those in police uniform walked behind them. This gave the appearance that the police caught the bootleggers.

However the massacre missed the prime target Moran as he had left his Parkway Hotel apartment late. As Moran and one of his men, Ted Newberry, approached the rear of the warehouse from a side street they saw the police car pull up. They immediately left the scene before being spotted, going to a nearby coffee shop. On the way, they ran into another gang member, Henry Gusenberg, and warned him to stay away from the place. A fourth gang member, Willie Marks, was also on his way to the garage when he spotted the police car and hid from sight.

The two “police officers” then signaled to the gang members in civilian clothes who had accompanied them. Two of the killers opened fire with Thompson sub-machine guns, one containing a 20-round box magazine and the other a 50-round drum. They were efficient, spraying their victims left and right, even continuing to fire after all seven had hit the floor.

The victims of the massacre were:

  • Peter Gusenberg, a frontline enforcer for the Moran organization.
  • Frank Gusenberg, the brother of Peter Gusenberg and also an enforcer. Frank was still alive when police first arrived on the scene, despite reportedly having fourteen bullets in his body. When questioned by the police about the shooting his only response was “nobody shot me”. He died three hours later.
  • Albert Kachellek (aka “James Clark”), Moran’s second-in-command.
  • Adam Heyer, the bookkeeper and business manager of the Moran gang.
  • Reinhart Schwimmer, an optician who had abandoned his practice to gamble on horse racing and associate with the Moran gang.
  • Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning operations for Moran. His resemblance to Moran, including the clothes he was wearing, is what allegedly set the massacre in motion before Moran actually arrived as he was believed to be Moran.
  • John May, an occasional car mechanic for the Moran gang, though not a gang member himself his desperate need of cash, with a wife and seven children, caused him to accept jobs with the Moran gang as a mechanic.

When the real police arrived at the crime scene they failed to establish the criminal’s plan. Prime suspect of the massacre, Al Capone proved that he was out of town at the time of the massacre and the shooters were never identified. Therefor nobody was ever punished for the massacre as there was no evidence as who did it.

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Cupid

Posted on 17th January 2012 in Valentines Day

In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. Cupid is believed to be the son of Mars, the god of war, and Venus, the goddess of love. Cupid is also known in Latin as Amor (Love).

Cupid often appeared as a winged chubby infant carrying a bow and arrows, he inspired love or passion in his every victim with his magical arrows. He was sometimes portrayed wearing armour like that of Mars, the god of war which is thought to symbolise the invincibility of love or perhaps the fine line between love and hatred.

In Latin mythology, Cupid’s ability to create love and desire plays an instigating role in several myths or literary scenarios. In Vergil’s Aeneid, Cupids arrow makes Dido fall in love with Aeneas, with tragic results. They also make Cupid the patron of love poets. Cupid is a central character, however, in only the traditional tale of Cupid and Psyche, as told by Apuleius.

CupidCupid was a continuously popular figure in the Middle Ages, when under Christian influence he often had a dual nature as Heavenly and Earthly love, and in the Renaissance, when a renewed interest in classical philosophy endowed him with complex meanings. In contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown shooting his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an ever popular icon of Valentine’s Day.

Cupid was a popular figure due to the happiness he gave to couples both mortal and immortal by bringing them together. At the worst he was considered mischievous in his matchmaking, this mischief often directed by his mother, Venus.

We all know that Cupid was believed to cause people to fall in love by shooting them with his magical arrows. But Cupid didn’t just cause others to fall in love – he himself fell deeply in love. As legend has it, Cupid fell in love with a mortal maiden named Psyche.

Cupid’s mother Venus became jealous of the princess Psyche, who was so beloved by her subjects that they forgot to worship Venus, she ordered Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest thing in the world as to deter her loyal subjects bringing back the attention to herself, Venus. However her plan backfired on her as while Cupid was sneaking into her room to shoot Psyche with a golden arrow, he accidentally scratched himself with his own arrow and making himself deeply in love with her.

Afterwards Cupid visited Psyche every night while she slept. Speaking to her so that she could not see him, he told her never to try to see him. Psyche, though, lead by her two older sisters who told her Cupid was a monster, tried to look at him and angered Cupid. When he left, she looked all over the known world for him until at last the leader of the gods, Jupiter, gave Psyche the gift of immortality so that she could be with him as his eternal wife. Together they had a daughter, Voluptas,(meaning pleasure) and Psyche became a goddess.

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What Is Valentines Day?

Posted on 19th December 2011 in Valentines Day

Fertility Festivals

The association of middle of February with love and fertility goes back to ancient times. While ancient Romans celebrated the Feast of Lupercalia to honour the Roman Fertility Gods – Lupercus and Faunus, ancient Athenians celebrated it as the month of Gamelion to celebrate the marriage of Greek Gods – Zeus and Hera.

February Celebrations in Ancient Rome

Ancient Romans celebrated the ides of February as the festival of Lupercalia to secure fertility and keep out evil. The Feast of Lupercalia was dedicated to the Roman Gods of Agriculture, Lupercus and Faunus along with Romulus and Remus – the legendary founders of Rome. A precursor of this festival was celebrated on February 14. The day was observed as a holiday in honour of Juno – the Queen of Roman Gods and Goddesses and who was also the Goddess of Women and Marriage.

During the February Fertility Festival of Lupercus, members of the order of the Roman priests would gather in a sacred cave where Romulus and Remus are said to have been nurtured by she-wolf. To mark the beginning of the festival, priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification. Young boys used to slice the goats hide into strips and dipped them in sacrificial blood. Later, boys clad in animal skin would run about the streets of Rome holding pieces of goatskin above their head and gently slapping women and fields with the animal hide. Women gladly received the slap, as they believed that touch of the goatskin would render them fruitful and bring easy childbirth. Because the youths impersonated male goats (the symbol of sexuality), the ceremony was believed to be in honour of Fanus.

Another custom of  the Feast of Lupercalia was the pairing of young girls and boys who otherwise lived strictly separated. During the evening, all the young marriageable girls used to place their name in a big urn, and each young man would draw out a name of a girl from the urn and became paired with that girl for the rest of the year. Quite often, the paired couple would fall in love and then marry.

February Celebrations in Ancient Athens

Ancient Athens celebrated the period between mid January and mid February as the month of Gamelion. They dedicated the festival month to the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera. In Greek mythology Zeus was the supreme ruler of the ancient Greek Gods while Hera was the Goddess of women, marriage and childbirth.

 

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Valentines Day Cards

Posted on 15th December 2011 in Valentines Day

Everybody knows the meaning and importance of Valentines Day Cards, but the origin of them is possibly not often considered.

Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection such as handwritten notes .

In 1797, a British book called The Young Man’s Valentine Writer was published. This contained many sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose their own to use. Printers had already begun producing a limited number of Valentines day cards with verses and sketches, called “mechanical valentines,” and a reduction in postal prices in the next century made widely available the less personal but easier practice of mailing Valentines day cards. Which now made anonymous St Valentine’s day cards possible.

Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories and were now able to be mass produced. Fancy Valentines day cards were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in the mid-19th century.

Over time Valentine’s day came to be seen as the festival that celebrates all kinds of love and not just romantic love. Today, Valentine’s day cards are gifted to teachers, parents, friends, children, siblings and sweethearts. The popularity of Valentine’s day has spread in countries across the seven continents and is still increasing by the year.

The Valentines day card industry went from strength to strength and is now a massive market, and it is the second biggest card selling event after Christmas. But like all things Valentines day cards are changing and have evolved again and now provides a digital means of sending and creating a Valentines day card by way of printable Valentines day cards and e-cards.

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When Is Valentines Day?

Posted on 14th December 2011 in Valentines Day

Saint Valentine’s Day, more commonly shortened to Valentine’s Day is on February 14th.

Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day around 498 A.D.

Saint Valentine is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. It was given with the meaning worthy, strong and powerful to the recipients. The name Valentine was popular in Late Antiquity. Of the Saint Valentine whose is celebrated on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or more saints of the same name.

Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine’s Day — should be a day for romance.

The history of Valentine’s Day — and its patron saint — is a mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.

On St Valentine’s Day 1400 a court is opened in Paris, the High Court of Love, dealing with affairs of the love and heart: marriage contracts, divorces, infidelity, and abused women. The Judges were selected by women on the basis of a poetry reading..

Valentines Day has come along way and is now seen by some as a commercial free-for-all driving huge sales of chocolate, flowers and jewellery. Along with more traditional customs such as love notes and Valentines poetry.

Whatever contradictions arise from the various legends or tales the one constant remains the date – 14th February.

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