Primrose Day
The Primrose Day ( Primrose tag) was up to the First World War annually in memory of the death of Benjamin Disraeli , the novelist and two-time prime minister , committed on 19 April 1881st On this day his grave were on Hughenden Manor in the county Buckinghamshire and his 1883 erected statue in Parliament Square in London decorated with primroses. The primrose was Disraeli's favorite flower, which is why Queen Victoria often sent him bundles of primroses from Windsor Castle and her country estate, Osborne House . She also had a wreath made from primroses for his funeral in 1881.
On the occasion of the first anniversary of Disraeli's death in 1882, his followers considered wearing a primrose as an expression of affection and mourning. In the following year, the laying of bundles and wreaths under the newly erected statue and other Disraeli monuments was added as a cult gesture. At the end of 1883 the Primrose League was founded, which from now on organized its own ceremonies on Primrose Day and took over the monument decoration. It was not until 1917 that there was only a simple wreath under the statue of Disraeli.
Primrose Day also became a subject in painting as shown by paintings by Frank Bramley , Ralph Todd and Fred Hall . For this purpose, mostly young mourning girls with primroses were shown sitting under a picture of Disraeli.
literature
- Helke Rausch: Cult Figure and Nation: Public Monuments in Paris, Berlin and London 1848–1914. Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3486575791 , pp. 523-529. ( online )
