Rosemary: a Plant for Rituals and Memories

From Ancient Egypt to modern times, the scent of rosemary promises peace, joy, and even immortality.

Every December, people around the world decorate their homes with festive greenery. Spruce, juniper and pine trees are decorated with colorful lights and ornaments. Bright red poinsettias adorn fireplaces and dining tables. Mistletoe and honeydew are used to weave garlands and wreaths.

However, from the Middle Ages until the 18th century, another plant played an equally important role in festive decoration. Rosemary decorated the halls, or rather, the floors of churches and dwellings on Christmas. But this plant was more than just a decoration. The history of rosemary is intertwined with religion, medicine, literature and culinary arts.

According to Christian legend, rosemary was one of the herbs that lined the manger of Jesus. The evergreen shrub was also called "Mary's rose" because of its flowers, whose pale blue color symbolizes the Virgin Mary's divinity. According to another legend, the Virgin Mary changed the rosemary flowers from white to blue after she threw her blue cloak over a bush blooming white.

These stories inspired the medieval belief that smelling rosemary on Christmas Eve would bring a year of good luck, health and happiness. It became a tradition to scatter the herb on the floor and step on its needle-like leaves, releasing a fresh, woody scent. Parishioners also hung sprigs of rosemary alongside holly and ivy in their places of worship.

Covering the ground with fragrant herbs was a common practice in the Middle Ages, used to mask unpleasant odors from the tamped earth floors and inadequate sanitation systems of the time. Unpleasant odors were believed to bring disease, while the scents of nature were considered healing and revitalizing.

As the Italian Renaissance philosopher and physician Marsilio Ficino wrote in 1489, "all herbs, flowers, trees, and fruits have an odor, though you often do not notice it. With this scent they revitalize and enliven you from all sides, as if they were the breath and spirit of the life of the world." The scattering of rosemary on Christmas Eve and the scattering of the herb in the streets persisted until the eighteenth century.

In antiquity, rosemary became an emblem of faithful memory and immortality. This tradition originated in the herb's homeland, the Mediterranean. Rosemary thrived in dry, rocky places, especially along the coast. The first half of the plant's original scientific name, Rosmarinus officinalis, refers to the dew that sea spray creates on coastal plants.

Together, the Latin words "ros" and "marinus" translate to "sea dew". Rosemary was recently reclassified as Salvia rosmarinus after researchers discovered close similarities between its DNA and plants in the genus Salvia, many of which have been used in folk medicine. Salvia comes from the Latin word "salveo," which means "to be healthy" or "to be in good health."

"There is a belief that this fragrant plant keeps evil spirits at a distance, which might otherwise exert their deleterious influence during important life rituals," explain the authors of the study in "Myrtle, basil, rosemary, and sage as ritual plants in monotheistic religions: a historical and ethnobotanical comparison," a 2019 article on ritual plants in various religions.

Similarly, ancient Greek and Roman mourners often carried sprigs of rosemary in funeral processions and placed them on the body of the deceased at the burial site. The plant's evergreen leaves symbolized the immortality of the soul, and its fragrance hid the smell of decay. Rosemary is still used today at funerals, mostly by Christians in Europe. In 2022, this plant was part of the floral arrangement that decorated the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II.

Ancient cultures also recognized the medicinal properties of this herb. Rosemary helped with a variety of ailments, including pain, inflammation, and indigestion. The physician Pedanius Dioscorides included rosemary in his most famous work, De Materia Medica, a first-century Greek encyclopedia of herbal medicine.

According to him, rosemary "warms and cures jaundice.... It is also mixed with medicines to relieve fatigue". An even earlier Greek physician, often called the "father of medicine," Hippocrates, treated joint pain with ointments made from rosemary flowers and leaves macerated in olive oil. The herb was also used as a mnemonic.

Studies conducted independently by scientists from Northumbria University (2016) and the Research Center for Herbs and Traditional Medicines at Kerman University of Medical Sciences in Iran (2017) seem to confirm these traditional benefits: eating rosemary or inhaling its aroma improves memory and other cognitive functions.

Due to the fact that mankind has long used and appreciated rosemary, there are many references to this plant in literature. Perhaps the most famous example is in Shakespeare's Hamlet. When Ophelia mourns the tragic death of her father Polonius and falls into madness, she hands out imaginary flowers to everyone she meets. "There's a rosemary, it's for remembrance: take it, friend, and remember," she says.

Here Shakespeare pays tribute to this herb's associations with memory and grief. Ophelia, even in her delirium, wants others to remember her late father and the events that led to his death. Some scholars, including John Dwyer, suggest that Ophelia's imaginary bouquet also symbolizes her lost innocence.

"The modern reader may not realize that most of the plants mentioned by Ophelia were widely known and used in Elizabethan England to induce abortion and birth control," Dwyer writes.

Rosemary is believed to stimulate uterine contractions and increase menstrual flow. Sixteenth-century herbaria, such as those written by William Turner (1568), stated that the plant "disrupts a woman's flurry," according to Lucille F. Newman. Dwyer argues that the inclusion of rosemary and other herbs and flowers with similar effects in the narrative was meant to shock Elizabethan audiences, reinforcing the devastating effects of Ophelia's loss.

Shakespeare also introduces rosemary into the worlds of Romeo and Juliet and The Winter's Tale. In the former, he adopts the funerary significance of the herb. Upon discovering Juliet's body in a death trance, the friar tells her loved ones, "Lull our weeping and, as is customary, sprinkle this body with rosemary."

In The Winter's Tale, Perdita echoes Ophelia's words and presents this herb at a sheep shearing feast as a symbol of memory and grace: "Here are rosemary and rue, they bloom and smell even in winter. Take them for remembrance and good luck. And you will be welcome."

In Don Quixote, Shakespeare's contemporary Miguel de Cervantes also mentions the healing properties of rosemary. The hero uses rosemary, oil, wine and salt to prepare the balm of Fierabrasa, a miraculous substance that can heal whoever drinks it.

In contrast, the seventeenth-century English lyric poet Robert Herrick points to the use of the herb as a holiday decoration in "The Rite on Purification Eve," which marks the transition from Christmas to Easter with a change of seasonal decorations. Rosemary is harvested first, he writes: "Doloy rosemary and laurel."

Today, rosemary has naturalized in much of Europe and North America and is grown in warm climates around the world. The plant has evolved to resist drought, thanks to its waxy leaves that minimize water loss and a deep root system that can draw moisture even in poor soil. The plant's resilience, pleasant fragrance and evergreen ornamental appeal to home gardeners and landscape architects alike.

"No matter what comes at it - drought, snow, high winds, dust from nearby construction projects - it just keeps shining," writes horticulturist Sonya Patel Ellis.

The plant is also widely cultivated for cosmetics and cooking. Health food stores and high-end bath stores offer a variety of products with rosemary, from essential oils and supplements to fragrant soaps, creams and lotions. Some have been attributed therapeutic properties, but more research is needed to evaluate their effects.

In the culinary world, the pungent, piney aroma of rosemary with hints of citrus accompanies poultry dishes, stews, salads, cocktails and more. According to food writer Molly O'Neil, "When used judiciously, rosemary works a subtle magic in cooking. This herb brings notes of woods and sea air, camphoric and light, to any dish."

The history of rosemary has influenced the way people mourn, heal, and celebrate holidays. "The two faithful virtues - constancy in regard to the living and remembrance of the departed - have always been closely associated with the rosemary branch," British horticultural writer Ernest Thomas Cook noted in his notes at the turn of the 20th century.