Imagine, it is Remembrance Day, and you are preparing to speak at one of the many official ceremonies. Today is an important day, and looking just right is absolutely vital, especially as you will be reading The Ode today, in front of a huge audience. You are nearly ready to go, wearing your suit and a commemorative silk poppy, but you can’t help feeling there is something missing. Just then, your wife comes in, carrying a sprig of herb and a pin. That’s what you had forgotten – Rosemary!
Rosemary is a herb which the children are all extremely familiar with, particularly in cooking, and recently, when we were watering the plant in our garden at school the children asked about its other association. They knew Rosemary meant ‘to remember’, but they wondered why this was the case, and what the history behind this association was. They were fascinated to discover that not only is this association extremely common, but that it has a very long history too.
Many herbs and flowers have a fascinating history full of different associations and meanings and Rosemary is no exception. The herb, which is a woody evergreen plant native to the Mediterranean area, has been known of and used since ancient times. It was well known for its use in medicine, where it seems to have been used as a cure for everything from bad dreams, evil spirits and aging, to gout, headache and toothache! In fact, in the early 1600s, when plague swept London, it was believed that Rosemary could protect people, and the demand for Rosemary became so great that the price increased phenomenally. Where a whole armful of Rosemary had once cost 1 shilling, by 1603 just a handful would cost 6 shillings. To put that in perspective, most permanent servants (those given food and somewhere to live by their employer) would earn no more than 6 shillings in a whole year!
Today Rosemary is an almost universal symbol of remembrance. Many think this association comes from Shakespeare, who coined the famous line ‘Rosemary, that’s for remembrance’ in Hamlet, yet this association goes back long before when Shakespeare lived. In fact, the ancient Egyptians put Rosemary on the tombs of their loved ones, while Greek scholars wore Rosemary in their hair to help their memory. This association with remembrance is why Rosemary is traditionally also associated with both weddings and funerals. Often the bride would carry a bunch, or even wear a wreath of Rosemary at her wedding, and this symbolised not only love and friendship, but also remembrance of life before marriage. When somebody died, they would buried with rosemary, which not only symbolised remembrance and love, but also served a practical purpose – it smelt nice, and disguised the less pleasant smells associated with death. Of course, Rosemary was also believed to possess a number of other abilities, and one of the more humorous is that it was thought that, should the feet of a thief be washed in vinegar cooked with Rosemary, the thief would lose enthusiasm for stealing and commit no more crimes. How to convince the thief to wash their feet in the solution was not detailed!