Where Did The Tradition Of Giving Flowers Started

Down the ages, human feelings have found great expressions through the custom of giving flowers or bouquets. Flowers and bouquets are made use of for several purposes, from congratulating someone on the occasion of his or her birthday or anniversary to expressing an apology, or even to just cheer up someone.

Archaeological evidence collected from excavated sites points towards the beginnings of this tradition to the ancient era. Flowers have always occupied an important role in ancient Rome and Egypt and in the glorious civilizations of ancient Greece and China whose legends and tales clearly reflect this tradition. These ancient cultures considered giving flowers to be a great means of communication of one’s thoughts and feelings. Greek mythology is replete with identification of certain flowers that were believed to be representations of gods and goddesses.

The Middle Ages saw a furtherance of this custom, and France and England were chiefly responsible for carrying this tradition down the ages. Today as we have given meaning to each flower, we are actually echoing an ancient Turkish tradition imported into Europe by the French and the British.

Flower gifting gained much prevalence among the Victorians who widely indulged in this tradition. Victorians, as we know, never exhibited their emotions openly and therefore the custom of offering flowers or bouquets was regarded a great way to communicate emotions without making use of a lot of words.

This era saw the rolling out of guidelines for giving flowers or bouquets that we still follow. To take an example, buying a bouquet of red roses from a florist and gifting to your beloved upside down would surely annoy her. This is because red roses which are otherwise associated with emotions of love can convey negative feelings when they are presented to the recipient upside down. These rules were so in vogue that in the 19th century, several books about the language of flowers were published and extensively read.

This tradition continues even today, where people give flowers to others to express their sentiments. Through gradual evolution over the years, we have arrived at a stage where a lot of flowers now have some meaning and giving flowers or bouquets has to be done according to certain rules and regulations. Giving a bouquet of red roses is considered to be an expression of love, while lilies are considered as symbolizing beauty and purity. A single marigold flower is considered to be an expression of sorrow, whereas friendship is best exhibited by a yellow coloured rose.

Any tract of land can be made suitable for cultivating any flower, thanks to modern science and technology. If you live in Singapore, and walk into any Singapore flower shop, you will be overwhelmed by the enormous variety of flowers offered for sale that can express almost any human feeling.