Vitória Régia : Brazilian Legend
Legend has it that, a long time ago, the Tupis-Guaranis, indigenous people from Northern Brazil, told that every night, when the moon hid behind the hills far off on the horizon, it was going to live together with its favorite young ladies. They used to say that, if the moon could like one single girl, it would transform her into a star of the sky.
One princess, the Pajé’s daughter (Pajé being a significant figure of the indigenous people, similar to a shaman or priest), was impressed with that story. So, at night, when everybody was sleeping and the moon was traveling across the sky, the princess wanted to be a star, so she walked up to the hills and chased the moon, hoping the moon could see her up in the hills.
And so she did, every night, for a very long time.
But the moon did not seem to notice her, even though the crying of the princess could be heard in the distance as well as her sadness and sighs.
One night, the princess saw, in the clear waters of a lake, the image of the moon. The innocent girl wondered if the moon had come down to take her away, so she jumped in the deep waters to join the moon and its lovely young ladies. She was never seen again.
The moon, in return for the beautiful princess’s sacrifice, transformed her into a different star, different from the all the others whose light lit up the night sky. So, the moon transformed the princess into a “Star of the Waters”, whose flower is the “Vitória Régia”.
At that moment, a new plant was born, whose scented white flowers blossom and unfurl only at night. And, when the sun appears in the early morning, the flowers change their color to soft pink.
