"Love is in the air": The story behind the rose-giving tradition

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

"Love is in the air"… or that is what the first day of flower-giving showed us all. Delegates, chairs, the press team and the secretariat alike, received roses and funny messages from their peers. It was a great day to find love and strengthen friendships. Even I managed to send a rose with a lovely message to my fellow colleague, Fasih Rehman. However, after a long day of rose-giving, we were curious about the origins of this amusing tradition. We asked the secretariat what is the history behind it, what is its purpose, and also why I haven’t received a rose yet. 

The rose-giving tradition goes far back as LIMUN 2020, where roses were brought to the table because of the closeness of the event with Valentine’s Day. As soon as the delegates discovered that they could send roses to each other, they became a symbol of cheezy love and friendship. Really funny and cringe pick-up lines flooded the rose stand: “If you were a gavel, I would bang you all night” and “U.N. I belong together” were the most common ones.

The Secretariat-General, Luna de la Llama, told us the following: “It was a cute gag that was meant to give delegates the opportunity to have extra fun during committees.”

Regarding LIMUN 2022, an aspect worth highlighting is the origin of the roses themselves. Instead of buying from a big flower-selling franchise, the secretariat made sure to buy them from a small business. We believe this is great because it sets an example for sustainability among all MUN conferences and aims to help the community by helping small businesses. Moreover, the roses were great and quite a cute gift if you want to impress someone. 

Regarding why I haven’t received a rose yet, they did not comment.

By Dominico Rivera