When Does Flower Gifting Start

By Danica Halliway

No tradition helps in communicating human emotions in a better manner than gifting flowers or bouquets. People often step into a florist shop to buy flowers for all occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, to congratulate someone, to apologize, or just to lift one's drooping spirits.

Some people think that this custom started way back during ancient times with excavators finding proof of its existence at ancient sites. Flowers have always assumed an important place in ancient Rome and Egypt and in the glorious civilizations of ancient Greece and China whose myths and folklore clearly reflect this custom. In these cultures, it was believed that emotions could find their most suitable expression through the giving of flowers. Greek mythology is filled with mentions 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 transferring this tradition down the ages. Today as we have given meaning to each flower, we are actually continuing an old Turkish custom brought into Europe by the French and the British.

The Victorian period spread this tradition of flower gifting even further. Demonstrating emotions in words and publicly was not considered as good manners during the Victorian era, and hence people made use of subtle ways to demonstrate their feelings in the form of gifting flowers or bouquets.

This period saw the rolling out of guidelines for giving flowers or bouquets that we still follow. For example, if you purchased an elegant bouquet of red roses from the florist and presented it to your beloved upside down, she will surely be cross with you. The reason being that while red roses symbolize love, giving them upside down exhibits resentment. In fact, a large number of books were written and disseminated on the language of flowers in the'th century.

This tradition continues till the present day, where people gift 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 fixed norms. Gifting a bouquet of red roses is believed to be an expression of love, whereas lilies are seen as symbolizing attractiveness and purity. On the other hand, a yellow rose depicts friendship while a single marigold depicts sorrow.

Flower gifting history keeps on to be written. In some nations, it might have once looked improper for a woman to give flowers to a man. Today, it is very ordinary. Virtual flowers and Internet florists allow new means to deliver virtual or true flowers anyplace in the world. Through advancement of science and technology, flowers can now easily bloom all year-round.

Science today has enabled us to grow countless varieties of flowers anywhere in the world. Any good Singapore flower shop will offer a plethora of flower varieties that are both local and imported in nature, and are appropriate for communicating your intimate emotions in the most elegant manner.

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