Finding the right sympathy flowers is never an easy task but, when purchasing blooms for a funeral, there are a few tips to keep in mind that can make it simpler to narrow down your options.
Religion often plays a large role in funerals and, of course, it’s extremely important to attend this type of ceremony with the type of respect it deserves. Different religious traditions maintain varying perspectives on sympathy flowers and so it’s important to take the bereaved’s faith into consideration when you’re choosing an arrangement to send or bring as a gift.
To start off looking into this topic, we’ve compiled a few introductory tips for two major world religions: Hinduism and Christianity.
Hindus often prefer funeral flowers with a vibrant colour pallette and the Hindu devotion to flowers is of immense importance to the religion (with the Hindu ritual of puja even translating as “the flower act”). In Hinduism, the lotus is frequently depicted in religious imagery and the flower carries many meanings, including prosperity, fertility and beauty. Arrangements that incorporate lotus flowers are a great choice for Hindu funerals. It’s also fitting to create your gift with many different colours. Starting with a lotus bloom and building from its colour as a base makes for beautiful flower arrangements, suitable for a Hindu ceremony.
Christians most often interpret white flowers as peaceful and/or hopeful. Christian funerals regularly emphasize these concepts alongside that of purity and the flower most commonly associated with this idea is the white Madonna lily — a flower that shares roots with Christianity’s Virgin Mary. This makes lilies a good idea but other white flowers (like varieties of snowdrops and leucojum) or either white or red roses are also suitable. Many Christian funeral flower arrangements make use of a white base and red highlights to create a striking and emotionally profound sympathy gift.
There are many other religious traditions to discuss so be sure to check our blog often for more tips on how to pick the right funeral flowers for any upcoming ceremony.
This is a nice brief history of the religious uses offloral arrangements for funerals . It’s nice to read about how and why other religions incorporate flowers into burial rituals. Thanks for posting!
Comment by Big Apple Florist — October 27, 2010 @ 6:43 pm
Thanks for the comment! Glad you enjoyed reading it.
Comment by contributor — October 29, 2010 @ 12:59 pm