velvet revolution

[nimsooze]

Who knows about the etymology of "velvet revolution"? why velvet? Is there another example for this use of velvet?

[Soup]

The term

The term Velvet Revolution was coined by a journalist after the first events and it caught on in world media and eventually in Czechoslovakia. The media, riding on an infotainment wave, saw this success and started the tradition of inventing and assigning a poetic name to similar events – see color revolution.

It is believed that the term originated from the various communist opposition groups which met in theaters such as the Laterna Magika, velvet referring to the velvet ropes found in all these theaters.[citation needed]

Source Velvet Revolution: Definition from Answers.com

[konungursvia]

There is also the clear connotation of softness rather than violence, cf. "velvet hammer."