Spirits

From NarratingLandscapes

I would like to think that no one would die anymore if we all believed in daisies but the worms know better, don’t they?

They slide into the ear of a corpse and listen to his great sigh.

~Anne Sexton

Flowers have long had associations with the spirit world. One of the oldest possible examples for this (60-80,000 years BP) is the Neanderthal burial called Shanidar IV from the cave site of Shanidar, located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq.

Shanidar IV, sometimes called "the flower burial" is a famous burial that appears to have the pollen from wildflowers associated with the burial. This association may suggest that Neanderthal groups ornamented the bodies of their dead with flora which was symbolically important. If this is the case, it establishes an enduring record of symbolic communication through plants.

Many cultures and countries believe that plants have a connection to the spirit world. This is true also in the traditions of Wedding Plants/Flowers.

For example, in Sweden the bride and her bridesmaid's would carry large bunches of weeds and foul-smelling herbs to ward off evil spirits. It was believed that weddings attracted demons, who would follow the bride to the church and cast evil spells against the groom and herself.

An Indian tradition is for the groom's brother to sprinkle flower petals over the couple at the end of the ceremony to ward off evil spirits.

Sources:

http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/ha/shanidar.html

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1975Sci...190..562L