Red carnations were used as a symbol of socialism and the labour movement, so they were the most frequent flowers given to women on International Women’s Day (March 8) in former Yugoslavia, as you can see on this photo from the Flower Square in the ‘80s.
They have slowly been replaced with an omnipresent classic – a red rose, which you’ll probably see in the arms of most girlfriends, wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and other women in Zagreb, and around the world, today.
Did you know that women's suffrage in former Yugoslavia was granted earlier in history than in Switzerland? It was in 1945!
Photo taken from: Zagreb - kakav je bio nekada.