It goes without saying, flowers for Valentine’s Day is a natural gift for the holiday. However, there still remains the question of exactly why people give flowers to their significant others on this winter holiday. A few different myths exist that explain this choice.
One in particular provides a theory as to why flowers have commonly been chosen as a gift for Valentine’s Day. It involves the lore of forbidden love and has been favored over the rest by hopeless romantics – after all, this is the holiday for such antics.
It begins with the fact that a certain priest once married couples while it had been outlawed by the Emperor. The reason the Emperor chose this path was so that he could free up young men in order to have them join his army. This priest’s surname, not by chance, happened to be Valentine. Because he believed so deeply in love, St. Valentine still continued to secretly conduct marriages.
Emperor Claudius III, as most of these stories generally go, discovered what St. Valentine was up to and naturally jailed him. In fact, he took it a step further and sentenced him to death for such a great defiance against his rule. The law of irony then came into play, as St. Valentine fell in love with the daughter of the Emperor.
Naturally, their love was rather short-lived due to the sentence of death that Emperor Claudius III had decided to conduct. Prior to falling to the beheading, St. Valentine handed the lady a written note and a single red rose – the very first valentine. From this, the gifting of flowers for Valentine’s day began a new precedent.
Keeping this romantic lore in mind, what some may do is take a moment out of the day to visit a local florist and pick up a flower from the heart. It need not just be a rose; other acceptable Valentine’s Day flowers include the iris, sunflower, wildflower, lilac, carnation, orchid, lily, tulip or daisy. The meanings of these flower has a wide range of meanings, such as innocence, perfect love, purity, faith, hope, loyalty, beauty, seduction, refinement, fascination and adoration. The possibilities are endless.
These gifts can be given in a variety of ways. the most popular way is for a florist to deliver them. The spectacle of having a florist’s delivery van pull up in a company’s parking lot or a person’s driveway is an announcement that someone special is getting flowers. The arrival of the box or arrangement is sure to generate oohs and ahs from coworkers and neighbors. Not only does the idea of getting flowers create a stir, it creates a little camaraderie. The next best way to receive flowers is for the gift-giver to bring them. It is a private romantic moment that can be treasured for some time.
