Pauline and Mary began to prepare dinner, and I sat down next to her in a chair by the window for reading. Here's what I learned from the book.
Rosemary in Latin means "sea dew". According to legend, rosemary flowers were white at first. The flowers turned blue when, during the flight with the little Christ from the soldiers of Herod, the Virgin Mary put on her blue cloak in a rosemary bush. Therefore, one of the many colloquial names of this plant is "Mary's cape".
This happened with the light hand of the ancient Roman historian Pliny, who said that rosemary flowers have such an attractive color due to the fact that sea foam, falling on the flowers, turns them blue, because the plant is found mainly on the rocky sea coasts of the western Mediterranean.
Even more legends surrounded rosemary in the Middle Ages. There is one scene in "Hamlet" – Ophelia's crazy speech in scene 5 of Act 4, when she distributes her bouquet to the audience. The associations evoked by each individual flower from the bouquet in the audience in the 16th century were completely definite and helped to reveal the characters of the characters of the play more clearly. But the bouquet of Ophelia, full of symbolic meaning, said little already in the 19th century, and even less to our contemporaries. Meanwhile, each flower in it is of key importance for determining the characters. The ancient ideas about rosemary as a plant that improves memory, strengthens vitality, heart and mind were preserved even in the time of Shakespeare. At the same time, rosemary sprigs began to decorate the bride's bouquets, symbolizing constancy, loyalty, strengthening love, devotion. On the other hand, rosemary was in demand not only in wedding, but also in funeral ceremonies and religious rites-to preserve the memory of the deceased. Thus, in the medieval language of flowers, Ophelia offers rosemary to her brother to strengthen his spirit and the memory of his father.
Legends about rosemary persist among perfumers. "The Queen of Hungary Water", containing a distillate of rosemary flowers and tops, was considered the first miraculous remedy that preserves youth and beauty. "Water of the Hungarian Queen" is still considered one of the first alcoholic distillates in the history, the creation of which dates back to the end of the 14th century by perfume historians.