Sunday, November 2, 2008

Toussaint or All Saint's Day

photo credit : sonictk/flickr

November 1st is Toussaint or All Saint's Day in France. Similar to our Ching ming. The day to respect & honour the dead. The day people place flowers on the graves of dead relatives. It's also a public holiday where only churches are opened.

In France, the traditional funeral flower is the chrysanthemum. All week supermarkets & flower shops have been displaying pots & pots of chrysanthemums.

It may be good to know that this flower is associated with death & bad luck. A word of advice - if you're visiting a French family, don't ever buy them chrysanthemums.

4 comments:

eunice said...

Good to know about the flower. Wouldn't want to make mistake if ever I had to bring flowers. Every culture has their own funeral flowers etc.

bACk in GERMANY said...

I thought it's also the same for the Chinese?

Thanks for the advice...
That's the thing with flowers. So always bring chocolates when invited. Cannot be wrong right... unless I meet a family who's allergic to cocoa!

petite fleur said...

Eunice - Just curious, what is the funeral flower in Thailand ?

backingermany - Oh is it a taboo to give chrysanthemum to the Chinese too ? Over here, it's more common to bring wine (must be French of course) & sometimes flowers or even a potted plant & chocolates.

SIG said...

Errmm actually All Saints Day isn't Ching Ming. It's a day to remember the saints. The day after - All Souls' Day which falls on 2nd Nov is the day for souls. Very much like Ching Ming. :)