The passion fruit flower means the Passion of christ, therefore, it is also known as “Flor da Paixão”.
When European missionaries arrived in America, they were enchanted by the flower's exuberance and immediately associated some of its elements with the Calvary of Christ. For this reason the passion flower also means "Wounded Heart".
The symbology of the passion flower was related as follows: the three stigmata corresponded to the three nails that held Christ to the cross; the five anthers represented the five wounds; tendrils were the lashes used to martyr him; finally, in the shape of the flower, the image of the crown of thorns carried by Christ for the act of crucifixion was visible.
The shades of purple that color the flower symbolize the blood shed by Jesus Christ. Incidentally, the color purple is used in Christian rituals during Holy Week. The story goes that in the 17th century Pope Paul V was amazed when he received passion fruit flowers as a gift and ordered them to be cultivated in Rome. The flowers that had come from South America were a sign to the Pope that the Gospel was also to be spread in the "New World".
In religious symbolism, the round shape of the passion fruit corresponds to the world of sin that Christ gave his life to save.
In other languages, passion fruit is known as the “passion fruit”: passion fruit (in English), fruit de la passion (in French), passion fruit (in Spanish)...
Passion fruit belongs to the plant genus Passionflower. In Tupi-Guarani, the term “passion fruit” means “food inside the gourd”. Brazil is the world's largest producer of yellow passion fruit, because here this plant finds ideal conditions to grow, which explains the fact that there are more than 150 known species in Brazil.
See too: fruit and fruit difference.
