Quizzes & Puzzles6 mins ago
Lillies - flower of death?
8 Answers
Is it true that lillies are traditionally given when some one has died? Or related to death in anyway. A kind of mourning flower?
Answers
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by Alannah. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.This seems to be an American practice too. For example in Way Out West (a Laurel and Hardy film; that well known reference point for US culture !) . to claim an inheritance a girl impostor has to persuade them that she is the rightful heiress, recently informed of the death; so she enters sadly, carrying an enormous bouquet of white longiflorum lilies; this incongruous prop is evidently meant to support the deception that she is in mourning at the news.
Alannah - Only since Christmas have I started to buy lilies. My Mother would never have them in the house as she said they were always associated with death, so naturally that's how I also saw them. I first bought a bunch of white ones and as coggles says the smell was so beautiful that they've now become my favourite flower - and the fear has been obliterated.
Possible but care is needed 'Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds' ( Shakespeare ; sonnet 94) ! Not unkown in lilies and lily type plants. There's rafflesia arnoldii which shows the opposite, too. The stinking corpse lily' attracts pollinating insects by smelling just like decaying flesh; it's also the world's laregest flower. To hide smells of decay our ancestors were fond of spreading aromatic plants or dried herbs, such as lavender, on the floor so even the act of walkking on them released a perfume. The scent of the lily pre-fester might have been a more luxurious option but for year round and for greater effect that old method seems more likely somehow.
Related Questions
Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.