I randomly thought about this last night...Does anybody know when and/or how the custom of men buying or presenting flowers to women originated?
I was wondering if the custom existed prior to recorded history. It makes me wonder if presenting flowers had any functional purpose besides that of an emotional symbolic one. It's difficult for me to imagine a pre-literate culture being complex enoungh in their symbolism to represent a tradition like this solely based on their emotional states. The fact that the practice was so widespread, according to the article, further supports this notion, as emotional customs, certainly the expressions of them, are quite varied in different parts of the world. Some brief brainstorming makes me wonder that perhaps it was a practice which helped illustrate changes in the weather, areas of safety, locations that might be ideal to setup a family,etc..
to the best of my knowledge, this is pretty much a cleche' i've mostly only seen in movies. old movies at that. everyone is different and different people like different things. my wife, when she was alive, did like the idea, though i could never figure out why. a garden where the flowers could be alive to me makes more sense.
idk....but I don't like getting them. They mean work.....cut stems a bit, so them dead selves can absorb water and sit in a vase for a few days.......I rather see them outside growing as they should be.,......
flowers for funerals and as grave good, that there is archiological evidence for. again, i don't know how people forget customs are not universal. flowers as a fiance offering may well have existed in some places and not others. people weren't the flintstones, up until the very moment when writing was invented, and then suddenly we all knew everything. why so many people today assume everything before written history equals flintstones, is another thing soo many people that makes no sense. makes me wonder if the teaching of history as ever not been overly preoccupied with making false but convincing ideological arguments. craftsmanship of many familiar kinds predates writing, as does the big one, agriculture. flowers in some early societies, may have represented having the possession of agricultural wealth to offer a marriage.
I've heard that flowers for the dead was to cover the smell. Maybe giving a woman flowers has some sort of freudian meaning.
perhaps in days of yore in meadow fields romance blossomed plucking wilflowers from the ground in a show of affection and she wore them in her hair wildflowers thus...it became a business the modern one it is today I don't mind the meadow picking a wildflower or two for me thing that has a very old fashioned sweet romance feel to it.
No clue what you are suggesting here... I don't think any history courses teach pre history as humans working with dinosaurs, speaking perfectly grammatical language and using foot propelled cars. It seems you may be the one with the Flinstones ideal of prehistory.
'Flintstonization' is a term I've come across meaning the projection of modern values, attitudes and so on onto pre-historic humans.
It may be a minor way to a womans heart, but every woman I have ever met loves to get flowers. It means to me as a giver----I want you to have and enjoy these beautiful flowers--you deserve them, as you are also beautiful. Don't have to say it--the meaning is clear.
I'd be way happier with food. Or weed. Present either of those to me and you've probably got my heart!