Kelley House Calendar: The significance of funeral flowers
In preparation for the upcoming Day of the Dead, I thought I’d discuss the language of funeral flowers. The current exhibition at the Kelley House, “Good Mourning, Mendocino: Funeral Rites and Customs,” features a number of floral arrangements that highlight some of the meanings inherent in sepulchral floral bouquets. Learning the special symbolism of flowers became a popular pastime during the Victorian era. There were guidebooks for deciphering what message was being conveyed by the color and type of flower in a bouquet. No one back in the late 1800s thought that “a rose is a rose.” It was always so much more!
Among the floral arrangements in the exhibit are five color schemes: red, blue, purple, pink, and white. White is the most common flower color since it represents elegance, reverence, purity, and eternal love. The two wreaths hung in the exhibition feature calla lilies and white peonies. The peonies convey compassion and healing, and calla lilies, one of the flowers most associated with funerals, represent resurrection and rebirth.
Below the wreaths stand the pink and blue arrangements. Pink represents grace, compassion, and innocence. That arrangement consists of peonies, chrysanthemums, and wisteria. The chrysanthemums symbolize truth, lamentation, and grief, and the wisteria can represent purity, innocence, and a love that transcends death.
The blue in the second bouquet represents sadness, sympathy , and peace. This arrangement features roses, hydrangeas, and peacock feathers. It is common knowledge that roses are a symbol of love, but blue roses do not grow naturally and must be created with dye; because of this, the blue rose represents unattainable love. The hydrangeas represent heartfelt emotions and, since they are a perennial bloom, they also symbolize remembrance. The last feature of this arrangement, the peacock feathers, represent respect, honor, and rejuvenation. Find us for more and visit our online flowers delivery shop in west hills get more sympathy and funeral flowers delivery
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