Clare Florist Blog

This year is a leap year, giving February 29 days instead of its usual 28. This is required because the earth actually takes about 365.2422 days to go round the sun, not a simple 365. If we didn't have leap years the season's and the months would no longer match (shifting each year by about 6 hours). As it is, it's still quite complicated and the astronomers have to be on the case to know when a leap day needs to be added or left out so that we don't end up with winter in May and spring in August! See the link above for more on the maths.

So, February 29th, leap day, generally comes once every four years. Traditionally, this is the day for custom to be inverted and for women to propose marriage to their beloveds, rather than waiting for the men to take the plunge. This tradition goes back hundreds of years; back in 1256 it was decreed by English law that the leap day and the day before were to be reckoned as one day for the purpose of calculating when a full year has passed. Thus, February 29th was 'leapt over' and was regarded having no status in law and became a day when tradition could be disregarded. In some versions of the custom it became the entire leap year for which women could propose, while others held it to be only that single day.

So, ladies, there's an extra incentive to take the initiative this year. Think saying it with flowers might be too girlie for him? Actually, a recent study carried out by Rutgers University found that men, as well as women, respond to a gift of flowers with increased signs of happiness and improved social interaction. Women may show it more, but in fact the positive effect of flowers is equal for men and women, across a range of ages and ethnic groups. The study found that, compared to a control group who did not receive any, men given a surprise gift of flowers demonstrated greater eye contact and stood closer in conversation, they also smiled more and more genuinely.

"If I had a flower for each time I thought of my mother, I could walk in my garden forever." (Unknown author)

Mother's Day as we know it today evolved from a number of different strands of tradition, which explains why the dates differ throughout the world. For a list of international Mother's Day dates, see here.

In Britain in the 17th century it was common for children of just eight or nine to leave the home to take up training as an apprentice or to take work as servants. They would be kept busy and wouldn't see much of their families but on the forth Sunday of Lent they would be allowed a holiday to return to home for Refreshment Sunday. This became known as 'going a-mothering' and on their way home the young apprentices and servants would pick spring wildflowers as a greeting gift for their mothers. They would often also bring a gift for the family from the merchants or nobles who employed them. A traditional gift was simnel cake, which is now often made for Easter as well as mother's day.

Simnel is a rich cake with fruit and mazipan and provided a treat for Mothering Sunday which was also known as Refreshment Sunday or Laetre (rejoicing) Sunday. Roughly midway through Lent, this is a day when people are invited to take a break from their Lenten discipline and enjoy themselves with feasting and resting in anticipation of Easter. After Mothering Sunday the children would return to their work, busied with Easter preparations, and might not visit their families again until Christmas time. Here's a recipe to make your own tasty Mother's day simnel cake.

Did you know, another name for this holiday is 'Rose Sunday'. This is because priests may wear rose, rather than purple, coloured vestments on this day, as a mark of rejoicing and relaxation. In addition to this, it's traditional for the pope  to carry a golden rose on this day as a symbol of joy. In the modern US tradition, established by Anna Jarvis in the early 1900s, the carnation is the flower of mother's day but the rose remains every popular.

Take a look at our great Mother's day spring garden basket.

Thankfully Valentine's is over - we have been really busy this year sending all those lucky people nice bouquets, teddy's and chocolates all over the UK.
Funny thing is though we are all still waiting on ours!
What is it about being a florist that guys don't like to send us flowers? Cause we are all still waiting on ours!!
We had a great time reading all those interesting card messages and even noticed a few proposals - how lovely.
Looking forward to a bit of a breather this week whilst we get ready for Mother's Day and Easter that are just round the corner.
It's good to see the lighter nights are starting to come and hopefully some better weather.
Kerryanne

A couple of weekends ago, I was lucky enough to catch a preview screening of Juno, which was released on February 8th, in time for Valentine's Day. It's an offbeat comedy which tells the story of the title character Juno, an American high-school girl faced with an unplanned pregnancy. In the film, Juno explains the origin of her unusual name, which is that of the Roman Queen of the Gods. What they don't say in the film is that the goddess Juno was associated with women and marriage and that February 14th was once a holiday in her honour. In fact, this may be part of the reason that the tradition of Valentine's Day arose. The following day, February 15th was also a festival in ancient Rome, known as Lupercalia. One of the customs at this time was that on the eve of Lupercalia unmarried Roman girls would put their names on slips of paper that would be placed in jars. The young men of the place would then take names from the jars to determine which girl would be their partner for the festivities. They might even be paired for the entire year, and often their chance partnership would extend into romance and marriage.

A similar lottery became popular in Britain in the Middle Ages. The names of young men and women would be drawn from a bowls in pairs and the men would wear the name of their selected valentine on their sleeve for a week (perhaps the origin of the modern day expression “to wear your heart on your sleeve”). They would exchange gifts and the man would be honour bound to protect his young lady in the year ahead.

And what of St Valentine after whom the day is named? There are a number of stories and different St Valentines but the best known tale tells of a time when the Emperor Claudius II decreed that all marriages and engagements would be cancelled so that his soldiers would not be distracted from their soldierly duties by the commitments of love and family. St Valentine, who was a priest in Rome at the time, secretly married couples against the will of Claudius and when this was discovered he was sentenced to death by beating and beheading. Thus he was martyred, as it so happens, on February 14th and declared the Saint of Lovers. He is also said to have cured the jailer's daughter of blindness and, before he was dragged off for his sentence, to have left her a farewell note signed “from your Valentine”, as we might sign our Valentine's cards today.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Modern-day Valentine's traditions include the sending of cards (often anonymous) bearing messages of love and the giving of romantic gifts, especially flowers and chocolates (all of which we can help you with here at Clare Florist).  In Wales, another traditional gift is a wooden love spoon, carved with motifs of hearts, keys and keyholes to symbolically bear the message “You unlock my heart”.

In old superstitions it was said the type of bird a woman saw Valentine's day would tell her about the man she would come to marry. If she saw a robin he would be a sailor; if she saw a sparrow she would wed a farmer; if it was a blackbird her husband would be a clergyman; a goldfinch would tell of a rich man; a blue bird of a happy man; a dove would foretell a loving man, and woodpecker would mean that she would never marry.

Different flowers also carry symbolic meanings and messages (the study of these even has it's own name: floriography). Choosing to include particular blooms in you Valentine's bouquet gives you another, more subtle way to send those Valentine's messages. Here are a few interpretations to get you started:

Anemone: a dying love
Carnation: fascination, devotion
                – pink: a woman's love, "I'll never forget you"
                – red: admiration, "my heart aches for you"
Daisy: innocence, loyalty
Lily: purity, pride, prosperity
Orchid: love, beauty, refinement
Rose: "I love you"
         – red: true love
         – white: dreams, innocence, secrecy
         – pink : grace, happiness
          – yellow: friendship
          – orange: desire
Tulip: perfect lover, fame, passion
        – red: declaration of love, "believe me"
        – yellow: hopeless love, or "there's sunshine in your smile"

For more flower meanings see here.

This year the Chinese New Year, which is also a celebration of the beginning of Spring, falls on the 7th of February. The Chinese follow a lunar calendar and the New Year always starts on a new moon; the festivities last for 15 days, ending on the full moon with the Lantern Festival And in the Chinese calendar it's not the year 2008 but 4705, also known as Wu Zhi, and in Chinese astrology it's the year of the Earth Rat.

Chinese New Year is a time for thanksgiving and family reunion. Traditionally it would honour the marriage of Heaven and Earth, and remembering and giving offerings to the ancestors remains important in today's practices. It is also a time for celebrating the new Spring and wishing each other happiness and luck in the year ahead. Flowers are an important part of the New Year's decorations. Blossoming plants symbolise rebirth and growth and the reawakening of nature. Flowers also symbolise wealth –without flowers there would be no fruit– and confer wishes for happiness in the year ahead. Plum blossom, pussy willow, azeleas, peonies, chrysanthemums, sunflowers and lilies are particularly popular and are associated with qualities like prosperity, luck and longevity. Red is an important colour and is commonly worn throughout the New Year period, it is believed to scare away bad fortune and spirits and to evoke courage, success, fortune and happiness.

Other New Year traditions include giving the house a good spring clean to start the year off with good Feng Shui and wearing new clothes to symbolise a new beginning. Click here for more on how to celebrate Chinese New Year yourself.

The Clare Florist prize draw winner for January was Nicky Whyte from Bristol.
Nicky wins a gorgeous spring bouquet worth £50 which is delivered to her with our very best wishes.
All you have to do is post back our comments card when you receive flowers and you will be automatically entered into our monthly prize draw.

After enjoying an indulgent Pancake Day, it's time for the self-restraint of Lent to begin. Back in the fourth century, baptisms typically took place on Easter Sunday, so the six weeks of Lent would be a time of purification in preparation for this, as well as the important Easter-time commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ. These six weeks also came to be associated with the forty days Jesus spent fasting and praying in the desert, and his repeated resistance to the temptations of the Devil.

Traditionally, Christians would take up three practices during Lent: prayer, fasting (giving up of meat, fat, eggs and dairy products) and almsgiving. These acts would encompass justice towards God, oneself and one's fellow men (and women). Some people still hold these three practices through giving up something they enjoy, doing something that will bring them closer to God and contributing towards charitable work. For people of all belief systems it can be a useful time to practice self-restraint, exercise your will power and experiment with your lifestyle. What will you give up for Lent?  Chocolate is a common choice in the lead up to the Easter bonanza, but here are some other ideas, taken from my own experience:

• Refined sugar (ie no sugar/glucose syrup etc, but fruit are okay) — You'll be surprised at how many products have added sugar. See how it would be if you were diabetic. Good for you skin, energy levels and waistline too!
• TV/video games — Free your mind, see how much extra time you have and what creative things you can find to do with it!
• Facebook/YouTube/MySpace... whatever website eats up most of your time — find out if it really gives you enough to be worth spending (wasting?) all that time on.
• Meat — try being veggie for six weeks. You might be surprised at how many tasty non-meaty meals are out there.
• Smoking — a good time for that renewed intention to quit. Maybe you can find a healthier addiction to replace it with (I recommend running, swimming, gardening, knitting/crochet, or writing Haiku or acronym poems).
• Alcohol &/or coffee/tea — we all know they're not good for us but have you ever found out what it's really like to abstain? Can you have fun going out without the aid of an intoxicating beverage? Can you wake yourself up and make it through the day without a caffeine hit?

And in addition to all the benefits of giving up unhealthy habits, you'll gain the experience of living without and resisting temptation for six weeks — or at least attempting to!

Let us know if you have any interesting suggestions for what to give up and how you get on.

Good luck :)