Flowers and Funerals

There will be flowers at funerals at funeral homes Havana, FL. Even if you request charitable donations in lieu of flowers, there will be some people who will still send flowers or plants to the funeral home or to your home address. Flowers have a historical role in funerals that makes them an intrinsic and traditional part to this day in funerals. You will never attend or be part of a funeral that doesn’t have flowers.

 

The use of flowers in the old days in funerals was not so much as an expression of emotions or feelings. Instead, funeral flowers had a very practical purpose. Flowers were used to control the not-so-pleasant smell of bodies as they naturally decomposed.

 

Before embalming became an integrated part of the funeral process and before refrigerated storage was available for funeral homes, bodies decomposed rather rapidly. Flowers were used by funeral home directors to drape around the casket – which is still traditional today – to cover up the smell, which could be rather hard to bear.

 

One of the most well-known examples of this was the funeral of President Andrew Jackson in 1874. Since President Jackson was not embalmed and several days passed before his funeral was help, the odor from his decomposing body was horrendous. Funeral Director Lazarus C. Shepard closed President Jackson’s casket and heaped fragrant flowers around and on top of the casket to hold the noxious smell in check until President Jackson’s funeral was finished.

 

However, once embalming was introduced into the funeral process and other preservation techniques improved, there was no longer a practical need for flowers. But by then, flower had come to represent a visible expression of sympathy, care, respect, and love for the deceased and the deceased’s family.

 

 

Flowers that are sent to funerals today are meant to express sympathetic sentiment and emotional support for grieving families. Not only are flowers sent to the funeral home, but flowers – or plants – may also be sent to the home of family of the diseased.

 

While many people are foregoing flowers and asking for donations to different organizations instead, there will still be a group of people who believe that flowers are more personal and can do a better job of expressing their condolences than making a contribution to the requested charity or organization.

 

Flowers are necessary to establish the atmosphere for the funeral service. Even now, if we attended a funeral service where there were absolutely no flowers, the service would seem cold and impersonal. We might even silently wonder if the deceased had any family or friends who truly loved and cared about them.

 

Flowers are embedded in the funeral tradition and they will never go away completely. The family of the deceased, even if they are asking for donations instead of flowers, is responsible for purchasing the casket spray. This spray may have flowers in the deceased’s favorite color or the deceased’s favorite flowers.

 

Different kinds of flowers have very specific meanings for funerals. Lilies, for example, which are ubiquitous in funerals, are symbolic of a return to innocence and purity. Carnations are also a popular funeral flower. Red carnations symbolize respect, while white carnations express remembrance. Roses are the third most common funeral flower selection. White roses symbolize humility and youthfulness, while yellow roses symbolize friendships.

 

For more ideas about funeral flowers at funeral homes Havana, FL, our sympathetic and experienced staff at Lifesong Funerals & Cremations is available to help.