I Present You a Marigold - The Youngest Child of Sun

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Have you ever heard a legend about marigolds?

Photo: PIXABAY

As legend says, long time ago in Rome, one young man felt in love with a young Byzantine Vestal. Vestal was an old name for virgin who devoted life to the goddess of domestic hearth. Name of the goddess was Vesta. One day, young Roman man took the girl behind the temple and when he was convinced that he had her heart, she suddenly died. Since then on her grave, marigolds grows constantly .

Photo: PIXABAY

However, this is just one legend about marigolds. And there are so many of them.
A few days ago, I bought a little bouquet of marigolds at the local market. These little flowers are just amazing! They have so beautiful and intense orange color, and sweet and mild scent. Also, they last in the water for several days. This small bouquet of orange flowers inspired me to explore a little bit about marigolds. Of course, I took a few pictures of them. :)

As I said, there is so many legends about marigolds. First of all, you probably don't know what is a meaning of marigolds name?
The Latin name of this plant is Calendula officinalis. The first part - 'calendula' - in Latin indicates the first day of the month. When the ancient Greeks enslaved Egypt, 300 years before our era, they were so impressed by traditional medicine and incredible knowledge and miraculous use of medical herbs in healing, bodies mummification, care and religious rituals. They were most fascinated by marigolds, cause they didn't know anything about it. It is considered that the most powerful rituals are those in which this plant is used. So, it's necessary to considered about the consequences which can be eternal. All rites in Egypt, ancient Greece, and Rome began whit the burning of marigolds and inhaling the vapor given of its petals.
In English, a meaning of word 'marigold' has his own story. There is a belief that the first Christina left marigold, instead of the usual gold, as an offer, at the altar of the Virgin Mary. They say the name of this flower in English - marigold - comes from this ritual - Mary's gold = Mary Gold. So, marigold is often used in ceremonies that celebrate the Virgin Mary.
In Serbian, we have 6 names for this flower: 'nevenovo cvece', 'zutelj', 'prstencac', zimorod', 'ognjac', 'vrtelni neven'.
Even our personal names take origins from this flower - woman's name Nevena and man's name Neven.

In addition to this, there is a belief that the marigold is the youngest child of the Sun, and has almost everything like his older brother Sunflower. Older people emphasize that every ritual with a marigold make a human full of warmth, like Sun energy does. Belief in the incredible properties of this plant is so strong, that even the famous world Occultist use it in their rites and ceremonies.

And again, this is not all about marigolds. Although till now we have mentioned Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome, marigold actually originates from India. Considering about his prevalence, legends and beliefs about the magical properties of marigold exist in many countries of the world. In Serbs, there is belief that marigolds are harvested on special religious festival - Djurdjevdan (it's on 6 May every year in Serbia), and then he realized the wishes. This is not only legend about marigolds and wishes realization, so this story is related to old saying: 'Beware of what you wish for, i't may come true!'.

In my country, there are many folk songs about marigolds, mostly about love. In those folk songs, if a girl try to plant marigold and he does not grow, girl will fate of sorrow for her dear. Also, there one more belief - marigold can predict the weather. If marigold petals remain closed, even when it is clear and sunny day, it's gonna rain.

All this is interesting, but quite with stories and legends about marigold. Now, we will talk about practical use of marigold, or what you really can do with it. About healing properties of marigolds, I will tell you first from my personal experience. Marigold helps me twice time. First time when I have persistent eczema on the hand, after many pharmaceutical cream which doctors recommended to me, in healing I have the most benefits from oil of St. John's wort and oil of marigold. Second time, it was a winter few years ago, when I heal from strong coughing with mixture of honey and dried marigold petals. I know some people who heal some health problems with marigold tea.

RECIPE FOR TEA

If you want to prepare marigold tea you have to use one full teaspoon of marigold petals which you will overflow with a mug of boiling water. You can drink this tea 3 or 4 times per day.
Marigold tea can help you in healing of digestive disease, purulent infection, and he also has sedative effect, so you can use him when you have problems with insomnia, anxiety and nervous. Marigold petals also can be used for preparing of different creams for skin care and nourishing.

Photo: PIXABAY

MARIGOLD AS FOOD

Something you may didn't know is that marigold can be a food. You will be strangely at least if you put marigold in your salad.

RECIPE FOR SALAD WITH MARIGOLD

For tasty salad, you should cut half a cup of cabbage, one red onion, and mix it. Than put 2 spoons of olive oil, squeeze one lemon and put 2 spoons of apple vinegar. Mix it well and put a marigold flowers in. If you want, you can put a salt in.

Well, could you believe that all of this we can say about just one flower. So many legends, stories, beliefs in different cultures all around the world, and just one little orange flower. Put a seed of marigold in your garden, like you can see, you can use it for many different purpose, and he also just can to makes your space and life more beautiful with his bright orange flowers.
And, if you sometime decide to think a wish with marigold in you hand "Beware what you wish for, it may come true!".