Violet

A diminutive flower, the violet has a whole array of meanings, many to do with color, many to do with its gentle size and appearance. The fondness people have for the flower has placed it in the calendar as the flower for the month of February.

Folklore says the violet connotes a love that is delicate. The sensibility of delicacy is also associated with the violet from ancient mythology. Roman and Greek myths recount a tragic story of one of the goddess Diana's (Artemis) nymph companions, all of whom had sworn to stay maidens. The nymph was unrelentingly chased by Diana's twin brother, Apollo, so that Diana changed the nymph into a violet to protect her. The modesty of the nymph is attributed to the violet.

Violets also denote spiritual wisdom, humility and faithfulness. These meanings make violets, along with yellow roses, the flower to give for a 50th wedding anniversary.

The color violet was named after the purple-blue flower. Purple as a color means royalty and power. Following from that, purple also means confidence. The white violet, in the Victorian mind, means candor; innocence, too. It was much the same during the Renaissance, when the meanings of flowers were not just simple assigned values, but reflected an essence that led to an understanding of the Divine.

Dreaming of violets is a sign that a fortune is coming your way. It is also supposed to mean your future spouse will be your junior. The violet does have a more sobering side, though, in that the flower is associated with death - and resurrection. The symbolism likely springs from antiquity, when a number of myths featured violets in the death of heroes and even an Earth God named Attis. Combining this death symbolism with modesty and maidenhood creates a meaning for violet of death too soon. Shakespeare's tragic Ophelia was linked to violets in "Hamlet."

Ophelia by Millais
(1851-2)

Famous Quotes

Schubert - Serenade

Famous Quotes

 

The Luxury of Life is simply to be able to appreciate and enjoy the Beauties of it.

Unknown

Plaisir d'Amour

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment.
chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

"Plaisir d'amour" (literally "The pleasure of love") is a classical French love song written in 1780 by Jean Paul Égide Martini (1741-1816). Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) arranged it for orchestra. The song  took its text from a poem by Jean de Florian (1755–1794), which appears in his romance, Célestine.

 

Fabergé Egg

A Fabergé Egg is any one of the thousands of jeweled eggs made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. Most were miniature eggs that were popular gifts at Eastertide. Each egg is unique.

The first Fabergé egg was crafted for Tsar Alexander III, who decided to give his wife, the Empress Maria Fedorovna, an Easter Egg in 1885.  Known as the Hen Egg (vide picture), it is crafted from gold. Its opaque white enameled ‘shell’ opens to reveal its first surprise, a matte yellow gold yolk. This in turn opens to reveal a multi-coloured gold hen that also opens. It contains a minute diamond replica of the Imperial Crown from which a small ruby pendant was suspended.

His wife's delight is all the Czar needed to reward Fabergé with a comission for an Easter egg every year. 

a) 1894 The Renassaince Egg
b) 1890 The Spring Flowers Egg

Mozart - Serenade No 10 In B Flat Major K 361 III Adagio

Matryoshka

The nesting doll – Matryoshka is the most famous Russian toy, a symbol of Russia, and considered to be one of the phenomenons in the world folk art.

A matryoshka doll is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a sarafan, a long and shapeless traditional Russian peasant jumper dress. The figures inside may be of either gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby lathed from a single piece of wood. 

The name of the toy is a diminutive from Matriona, a popular Russian name at the time. It has also been pointed out that there may be a connection with the Latin mater, which is supported by the idea itself: a large toy that shelters other smaller ones. However, in the beginning they represented men as well. They also represented entire families, statesmen, czars and also dolls celebrating certain events or holidays. Today, the name has become the symbol of motherhood and fertility. 

Matryoshkas are also used metaphorically, as a design paradigm, known as the "matryoshka principle" or "nested doll principle". It denotes a recognizable relationship of "object-within-similar-object" that appears in the design of many other natural and man-made objects. The onion metaphor is of similar character. If the outer layer is peeled off an onion, a similar onion exists within. 

Chopin - Tristesse

Life of man

" Your Majesty, when we compare the present life of man on earth with that time of which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like the swift flight of a single sparrow through the banqueting-hall where you are sitting at dinner on a winter’s day with your thegns and counsellors. In the midst there is a comforting fire to warm the hall; outside, the storms of winter rain or snow are raging. This sparrow flies swiftly in through one door of the hall, and out through another. While he is inside, he is safe from the winter storms; but after a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which he came. Even so, man appears on earth for a little while; but of what went before this life or of what follows, we know nothing. "

 Saint Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England

Dreams

Moonlight Serenade

Random Facts

Famous quotes

To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we come to happiness.

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1542-1587)

Random Facts

The Happy Life

Martial, the things that do attain
The happy life be these, I find:—
The richesse left, not got with pain;
The fruitful ground, the quiet mind;
The equal friend; no grudge, no strife;
No charge of rule, nor governance;
Without disease, the healthful life;
The household of continuance;
The mean diet, no delicate fare;
True wisdom join’d with simpleness;
The night discharged of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppress.
The faithful wife, without debate;
Such sleeps as may beguile the night:
Contented with thine own estate
Ne wish for death, ne fear his might.

A Martial‘s epigram (X:47), translated by Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey (1517-1547).

The Little Prince

The Little Prince (French: Le Petit Prince), published in 1943, is French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's most famous novella.

It has been translated into more than 190 languages and sold more than 80 million copies making it one of the best-selling books ever.

Though ostensibly a children's book, The Little Prince makes several profound and idealistic observations about life and human nature. For example, Saint-Exupéry tells of a fox meeting the young prince as he exits the Sahara desert. The story's essence is contained in the lines uttered by the fox to the little prince: On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. ("One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.")

Other key thematic messages are articulated by the fox, such as: "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed" and "It is the time you have devoted to your rose that makes your rose so important."

Beethoven "The Eroica" Symphony Nº.3

The Elysium Fields

 

According to the Greek mithology, the Elysium Fields was the final resting place for the souls of heroes and virtuous men.

The Elysian Fields lay on the western margin of the Earth, by the encircling stream of Oceanus (Odyssey), and there the mortal relatives of the king of the gods were transported, without tasting death, to enjoy an immortality of bliss (Odyssey book iv: 563).

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées, in Paris, is known as  La plus belle avenue du monde.

Haendel "Harpsichord Suite Set II, No. 7 in B-Flat Major, HWV 440"

Petunia

The petunia is a trumpeet-shaped flower native of South American. Its name is derived from the word "petun," which means "tobacco" in Brazilian.

They were discovered in the early 17th century by explorers, and were quickly sent back to Europe. Explorer James Tweedie sent samples of the flowers to the Glasgow Botanical Center in 1831, which heightened their popularity among European gardeners and botanists. Word of the new species spread, and petunias soon became a mainstay in home gardens around the world.

Petunias are known as "Mary's Praises" in Germany due to their uplifting flowers. They are a common symbol of the Virgin Mary in Christianity, and are often planted in gardens dedicated to the Mother of Christ. In popular folklore, petunia flowers are also believed to represent anger and resentment, or to soothe these negative emotions by their presence.

Chopin "Nocturne In B Flat Minor