Unraveling The History Behind The Custom Of Giving Flowers

Giving flowers or bouquets is perhaps the best way to express one’s emotions. Flowers and bouquets are made use of for several purposes, from wishing well to someone on the occasion of his or her birthday or anniversary to conveying an apology, or even to just cheer up someone.

Some people think that this custom began way back during ancient times with archaeologists discovering proof of its existence at ancient sites. Flowers have always assumed an important role in ancient Rome and Egypt and in the glorious civilizations of ancient Greece and China whose myths and tales clearly exhibit this tradition. Giving flowers was thought to be the most effective way to convey one’s thoughts in these civilizations. In fact, in ancient Greek legends, some flowers have even been bestowed with a divine status.

The Middle Ages saw a continuation of this tradition, and France and England were chiefly responsible for transferring this tradition down the ages. Today as we have assigned meaning to each flower, we are in fact continuing an ancient Turkish custom brought into Europe by the French and the British.

The custom of flower giving scaled new heights in the Victorian era. As blatant expression of feelings was frowned upon during the Victorian era, the refined Victorians cultivated great restraint in language and they compensated this control over language by their gesture of gifting flowers to communicate emotions.

This period saw the rolling out of guidelines for gifting flowers or bouquets that we still follow. For example, a bouquet of red roses bought from a florist would generate a rather unfavourable reaction form your beloved if you presented it to her upside down. Red roses, that otherwise symbolize love, can symbolize anger if gifted upside down. In fact, the 19th century saw several books published on the subject of language of flowers.

Time has not been able to diminish this tradition, and people in the present times still consider flowers to be the most effective means to express their feelings. In the present age, the custom of gifting flowers or bouquets is rich in different connotations, and rules and regulations concerning the decorum of the act have acquired tremendous importance. Gifting red roses is still seen as a passionate demonstration of love, and white lilies are known to represent purity and elegance. On the other hand, a yellow rose depicts friendship while a single marigold symbolizes sorrow.

Any tract of land can be made suitable for cultivating any flower, as a result of the progress in modern science and technology. If you are residing in Singapore, and step into any Singapore flower shop, you will be besieged by the sheer variety of flowers offered for sale that can depict almost any human feeling.