Various folk cultures and traditions assign symbolic meaning to the rose, though these are seldom understood in-depth. Examples of deeper meanings lie within the language of flowers, and how a rose may have a different meaning in arrangements. Examples of common meanings of different coloured roses are: true love (red), mystery (blue), innocence or purity (white), death (black), friendship (yellow), and passion (orange).

In religion Greco-Roman religion

In ancient Greece, the rose was closely associated with the goddess Aphrodite. In the Iliad, Aphrodite protects the body of Hector using the "immortal oil of the rose"Iliad 23.185–187. and the archaic Greek lyric poet Ibycus praises a beautiful youth saying that Aphrodite nursed him "among rose blossoms".Ibycus, fragment 288.4. The second-century AD Greek travel writer Pausanias associates the rose with the story of AdonisPausanias, Description of Greece 6.24.7 . Book Eleven of the ancient Roman novel The Golden Ass by Apuleius contains a scene in which the goddess Isis, who is identified with Venus, instructs the main character, Lucius, who has been transformed into a donkey, to eat rose petals from a crown of roses worn by a priest as part of a religious procession in order to regain his humanity.

Judaism

In the Song of Songs 2:1-2, the Jewish people are compared with a rose, remaining beautiful amongst thorns, although some translations instead refer to a "lily among thorns." The Zohar uses a "thirteen-petalled rose" as a symbol for the thirteen attributes of Divine Mercy named in Exodus 34:6-7. The rose and rosettes were also used to symbolize royalty and Israel, and were used in wreaths for the bridegroom at weddings in Biblical times.

Christianity Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire, the rose became identified with the Virgin Mary. The rose symbol eventually led to the creation of the rosary and other devotional prayers in Christianity.Cucciniello, Rose Lore, pp. 65 ff. Ever since the 1400s, the Franciscans have had a Crown Rosary of the Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the 1400s and 1500s, the Carthusians promoted the idea of sacred mysteries associated with the rose symbol and rose gardens. Albrecht Dürer's painting The Feast of the Rosary (1506) depicts the Virgin Mary distributing garlands of roses to worshippers. The Rose Cross incorporates the flower directly into the Christian cross, and is the namesake of the esoteric religious order of Rosicrucianism.

Islam The cultivation of geometrical gardens, in which the rose has often held pride of place, has a long history in Iran and surrounding lands. In the lyric ghazal, it is the beauty of the rose that provokes the longing song of the nightingale – an image prominent, for example, in the poems of Hafez.Julian Baldick in History of Persian Literature - Google Books;

In turn, the imagery of lover and beloved became a type of the Sufi mystic's quest for divine love, so that Ibn Arabi, for example, aligns the rose with the beloved's blushing cheek on the one hand and, on the other, with the divine names and attributes.Ibn Arabi, The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, trans. R. A. Nicholson, Theosophical Publishing House 1911 and 1978, pp. 130, 145.

Other well-known examples of rose symbolism in Sufism include: The Sufi master Jilani is known as "the Rose of Baghdad" and his order, the Qadiriyya, uses the rose as its symbol. Two prominent books aligned with Sufism are The Rose Garden by Saadi and Mahmud Shabistari's The Rose Garden of Secrets.

In Europe England

The rose is the national flower of England, a usage dating back to the English civil wars of the fifteenth century (later called Wars of the Roses), in which a red rose represented the House of Lancaster, and a white rose represented the House of York.Peter Childs, "Places and Peoples: Region and Nation", in British Cultural Identities, eds. Mike Storry & Peter Childs (4th ed., Routledge, 2013), p. 43. The Tudor dynasty created the Tudor rose, which united both the white and the red roses, a symbolism dramatized by Shakespeare in his play Richard III.George Goodwin, Fatal Rivalry: Flodden, 1513: Henry VIII and James IV and the Decisive Battle for Renaissance Britain (W. W. Norton, 2013), p. 11.Jon Robinson, Court Politics, Culture and Literature in Scotland and England, 1500-1540 (Ashgate, 2008), p. 44. The traditional ballad "The Rose of England" (Child 166) recounts the seizure of the crown by Earl of Richmond (who became Henry VII of England, the founder of the Tudor dynasty), using the "red rose" as an allegory for Henry.Natascha Würzbach & Simone M. Salz, Motif Index of the Child Corpus (Walter de Gruyter, 1995), pp. 175 f.

Of the approximately 775 mentions of plants and spices in his works, William Shakespeare refers to the rose most frequently, about 100 times.Mats Ryder, Shakespearean Plant Names: Identifications and Interpretations (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1978), p. 20

The England national rugby union team and Rugby Football Union adopted the red rose as their symbol in 1871, and the rose has appeared on players' kit ever since.Rugby History: Evolution of the England Kit , Rugby Football Union.

The red rose is the symbol for the UK Labour Party.

Spain

Catalans in the north eastern of Spain have traditionally celebrated Saint George's Day (April 23) – which commemorates Saint George (Sant Jordi), the patron saint of the Catalonia region; as the dia dels enamorats ("lovers' day"), on which lovers exchange blood-red roses.Matthew Tree, "St George's Day with a Catalan twist", The Guardian (April 23, 2011).

In North America United States In 1986, the rose was adopted as the national floral emblem of the United States.36 U.S.C. § 303 ("The flower commonly known as the rose is the national floral emblem.").Stephen Buchmann, The Reason for Flowers: Their History, Culture, Biology, and How They Change Our Lives (Simon & Schuster, 2016), p. 218.

It is the state flower of five U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Iowa: The wild rose was adopted as the state's flower in 1896.Linda Naeve, Iowa's State Flower - the Wild Rose (September 13, 1996), Horticulture & Home Pest News (Iowa State University Extension and Outreach). North Dakota: The wild prairie rose was adopted as the official state flower of North Dakota in 1907. The colors of the rose (green and pink) had previously been adopted by the first graduating class of the University of North Dakota in 1889.Wild Prairie Rose, State Historical Society of North Dakota. Georgia: The Cherokee rose (R. laevigata) was adopted as the state's official floral emblem in 1916.Georgia State Flower (Cherokee Rose), GeorgiaInfo: An Online Georgia Almanac, Digital Library of Georgia. New York: In 1955, the state adopted the rose as the state flower; the legislation stated: "The rose shall be the official flower of the state in any color or combination of colors common to it."New York State Flower - Rose , New York State Library. Oklahoma: In 2004, Oklahoma adopted a new cultivar named Oklahoma rose as state flower.

Portland, Oregon has counted "City of Roses" among its nicknames (see roses in Portland, Oregon) since 1888,Rosa Inocencio Smith, Orbital View: City of Roses, The Atlantic (May 5, 2016). and has held an annual Rose Festival since 1905."Coming Up Roses", Fodor's (2006; republished by the New York Times). The city is also known for its International Rose Test Garden.

Pasadena, California – also nicknamed the "City of Roses" – has held the annual Tournament of Roses Parade since 1890, and 1902 the Parade has been held in conjunction with the Rose Bowl Game (which is now played at the city's Rose Bowl stadium, built in 1922).Michelle Huneven, "37 Hours: Pasadena, Calif.", New York Times (September 19, 2003)."The Rose Bowl's Storied History", New York Times (December 31, 2013).

In April 2011, the U.S. government's space program agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), celebrated the Hubble Space Telescope's 21st anniversary by releasing an image of spiral galaxies Arp 273 positioned in a rose-like shape.

The red rose is also part of the official logo of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), being a symbol of socialism generally.

Canada In 1930, Rosa acicularis (the wild rose or prickly rose) was adopted as the official provincial flower of the Canadian province of Alberta. The suggestion that a provincial floral emblem be adopted by first made by an Edmonton newspaper editor; "the Women's Institutes took up the suggestion and passed it on to the Department of Education, and the province's schoolchildren made the final choice."Alberta (AB) - Facts, Flags and Symbols, Government of Canada (accessed May 24, 2016).Wild Roses, Canadian Wildlife Federation (accessed May 24, 2016).

The Wildrose Party, a now-defunct Albertan political party, was named after the province's official flower.The rise and fall of the Alberta Wildrose Party, CBC News (December 18, 2014).

Mexico The Mexican city of Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, is nicknamed the "City of Roses" (Ciudad de las Rosas)."The Mexican 'City Of Roses' Where Americans Feel At Home", Philadelphia Inquirer wire services (October 11, 1987).Bob Brooke, The Everything Family Guide To Mexico: From Pesos to Parasailing (Adams Media), p. 236.

Socialism

Since the 1880s, the red rose has been a symbol of socialism. The origin of the rose as a symbol of socialism relates to its association with the color red. Since at least 1848, red was associated with socialism. Following the French Revolution of 1848, the socialists pushed to have the revolution's red flag be designated the national flag. The republicans, however, prevailed and the French tricolor flag remained the national flag. The provisional government as a compromise decreed that: "As a sign of rallying and as a remembrance of recognition for the last act of the popular revolution, members of the provisional government and other authorities will wear the red rosette, which will also be placed at the flagstaff."

During the Paris Commune in 1871, the red flag solidified its link with socialism when it flew as the flag of the Communards' short-lived government. Following the collapse of the Paris Commune, German Chancellor Bismarck out of fear of the growing strength of the socialists in Germany had parliament pass the Anti-Socialist laws to suppress the activities of the Social Democratic Party. As part of the Anti-Socialist laws in 1878, the display of emblems of the Social Democratic Party were banned. To circumvent the law, social democrats wore red bits of ribbons in their buttonholes. These actions, however, led to arrest and jail sentences. Subsequently, red rosebuds were substituted by social democrats. These actions also led to arrest and jail sentences. The judge ruled that in general everyone has a right to wear any flower as suits their taste, but when socialists as a group wear red rosebuds, it becomes a party emblem.

Due to the Anti-Socialist laws, which banned social democratic activities, hundreds of socialists were fined, imprisoned, or exiled from Germany. Subsequently, the German exiles spread the red rose symbol of socialism across Europe and to the United States. The socialist Johann Most was one of these German socialist exiles, who first went to England, and then later went to the United States and carried the red rosebud symbol with him. The red rosebud was worn in his lapel in 1887 during speeches he gave in support of the eight individuals convicted in the Haymarket Affair in a sign of socialist solidarity. Similarly, the wearing of a red flower, such as a red carnation or red rose, became common during the commemoration ceremonies in France at the Communards' Wall which remembered the victims of the collapse of the Paris Commune. By the 1910s, the red rose was universally identified as a symbol of the socialist movement.