Rose is a pale, soft red tending toward pink, named for the flower, and it carries a symbolism distinct from full red: where red is passion, blood and urgency, rose is love softened into tenderness, gentleness and affection, the warmth of red without its heat. The rose flower itself is among the most freighted symbols in Western culture, sacred to Venus and Aphrodite as the flower of love, and in Christianity attached to the Virgin Mary, the rose without thorns, and to the blood of the martyrs. This dual inheritance, erotic and devotional, colours the hue.
In the Christian liturgy a distinct rose is worn on two days, Gaudete Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in Lent, when the penitential violet is lightened to mark a note of joy amid the fast, one of the few times a specific pale shade carries an official liturgical meaning. In the modern colour and crystal literature rose is tied to the heart centre and to compassion and self-love, a recent association resting on the same gentleness.