Tag: Lens-Artists Challenge #301-Floral

2024 LAPC: Floral #2

Signs of Respect

Flowers are given or sent to funeral homes, services, and placed on graves as a sign of sympathy and respect. Have you ever considered why flowers are given? Who are the flowers are meant for? They are not for the deceased, but in a way they are.

So why do we send them? Why do we bring them to the graves of those we love and care deeply about?

Flowers given to me after my mom’s passing.
The Flowers my Brother & I got for my mom’s Funeral Service.
Funeral Flowers at my Paternal Uncle’s Service
Gravesites of my Paternal Grandparents & Paternal Uncle
Grave of my Maternal Grandmother
Grave of my Paternal Great Grandfather, John Thomas Waters.

Funeral Flowers are intended as a way to show our respect to the deceased. Sympathy Flowers go home with the family of the deceased. Flowers are for the survivors/surviving family members to know their deceased was loved and cared for as well as a sign of respect for the deceased.

[I remember the flowers in the upper right came back to my brother’s home after my mom’s service. He turned around and sent them home with my mom’s sister. I do not recall what happened to the rest of the flowers.]

Sending Flowers to a funeral is a means towards an expression of love, comfort, sympathy, and respect. The purpose of floral arrangements at a funeral are intended to honor the deceased, and show sympathy to the family. The flowers enable the mourners to feel like the deceased was cared for by many people close to them. 

The placing of Cemetery Flowers or other objects on a grave marker or headstone is a way of paying your respects to the deceased. The flowers on a grave can show recognition of sacrifice of a deceased Veteran or admiration for a lost friend or family member. People have been leaving flowers on gravesites for thousands of years. In Ancient Rome they were used to create a comforting environment for the deceased spirit to wander around the grave.

I often bring flowers with me when I visit the graves of my family members and even place them on my grandparents & great grandparents graves when I visit the cemeteries. I try to honor the fallen soldiers by contributing to Wreaths Across America; an organization which places wreaths on the graves of fallen soldiers and deceased veterans.

Lens-Artists Challenge #301-Floral

Ragtag Daily Prompt-Survivor

God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with me. I appreciate y’all very much.

LAPC: Floral #1

Poppies

One day a year we stop and pause to remember our fallen soldiers. Poppies spring up this time of year and are a tremendously beautiful sight.

Eschscholzia californica, the California poppy, golden poppy, California sunlight or cup of gold is California’s official State Flower. California Poppy Fields are burgeoning with beautiful blooming Poppies and are attracting many visitors.

However, It is the Red Poppy which is a significant symbol of remembrance. Red poppy flowers represent consolation, remembrance and death. The Red Poppy, often considered the Remembrance Poppy, is one of the world’s most recognized memorial symbols for fallen soldiers. It has been a remembrance symbol since the end of World War I. The Red Poppy is worn by millions of people Worldwide to commemorate Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. Here in the United States of America it is also worn on Memorial Day.

Today is the day the United States is observing Memorial Day. It was not always observed on the last Monday of May. Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and was first designated to be held on the 30th of May in 1868.

Image by Stand for Israel

Even though I have not known a soldier who lost his/her life on the battlefield during a war, I still keep the Faith. I have many friends and loved ones who during the course of war lost a little piece of themselves. Those friends and family members never forgot their friends and comrades who lost their lives during the wars they were fighting in. Let us all Keep the Faith and Never Forget those soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

“We shall keep the faith

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet — to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valour led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honour of our dead.
Fear not that we have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that we wrought
In Flanders Fields”

Moina Michael (1918)

Lens-Artists Challenge #301-Floral

Cee’s Flower of the Day

Becky’s Squares-Renew/Burgeoning

Weekend Writing Prompt #365 – Pause

 Weekly Prompts- One day, hosted by Sue W and GC

God Bless. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with me. I appreciate y’all very much.