Bringing flowers home from a funeral
Bringing flowers home from a funeral makes many families hesitate. Russian custom frowned on funeral flowers, a 1903 book of superstitions says, since a wreath was thought to bring another death.
What it may mean
A funeral often leaves a family with more flowers than they can possibly keep: sprays, wreaths, baskets and potted lilies sent by people who could not come or did not know what else to do. Each one is a small message of care, and together they fill the room after the service. Some families hesitate to take them home at all, and funeral flowers have long carried uneasy lore: at Russian funerals, a 1903 collection says, flowers were unpopular, and a wreath sent was thought to bring another death. There is also a kinder path. Arrangements can go to a church, a care home or a hospital ward; guests can take a stem each; a single bloom can go into a book. Sympathy works the same way. When more of it arrives than one heart can hold, some of it can be passed along to people who need it too.
Depending on how you saw it
Leaving them at the grave
Many families let the flowers stay where the burial took place, to fade there over the following days. The place keeps them, not the house. Where do you leave things on purpose so that they belong to a place rather than to you?
A blossom pressed between pages
Some people take one bloom from the casket spray and press it between heavy pages, where it turns up years later. A 1903 collection, by contrast, called it unlucky to preserve flowers used at a funeral. Which book of yours holds something besides words?
Given to a care home
Arrangements sent on to a care home or a hospital chapel often brighten rooms for days, and the people who receive them may never know their history. Who nearby would be glad of something you have more of than you can use?
Why it happens in nature
Funerals in many places draw far more flowers than a family can keep, from standing sprays and wreaths to baskets sent by people who cannot attend. Families often give arrangements away to churches, care homes or hospitals, or invite guests to take some. Cut flowers last about a week whatever their history.
What folk beliefs say
Russia
Flowers are not popular at Russian funerals, a 1903 collection says; if a wreath of flowers is sent, another death will occur.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 1 (1903), vol. 1, p. 165. View the page
To reflect on
When you are given more comfort than you can hold, who could you pass some of it on to?