Nowadays, flowers be a party to b manipulate an important role in social behaviour, and are commercially available all year; they are gifts expressing affection, thankfulness, celebration, congratulation, mourning, or apology, and are used as decoration at both personal and public events. Weddings and funerals would be unbelievable without them.

The use of flowers in medieval and Tudor times is well documented, especially in courtly circles, where fashionable men and women wore chaplets of leaves and flowers on their heads (a duty suriving in the modern bridal wreath, and in daisy chains). Scented flowers or petals were strewn on floors, together with herbs and rushes, and carried in processions; strewing was a spotlight at both weddings and funerals. Churches were garlanded with fresh greenery and flowers at summer festivals, as with evergreens at other seasons, and clergy sometimes wore wreaths—in 1405 the Bishop of London wore a chaplet of red roses in St Paul’s for the celebration of that saint (Goody, 1993: 155).

The link between flowers and religious ceremonies was broken at the Reformation. From the 16th to the mid-19th centuries there were no flowers in churches, and mourners carried rosemary or rue, not blossoms, at funerals. More probe is needed to show when, and by what stages, they returned; in 1884 one writer referred to a growing ‘pretty custom of sending wreaths for the coffins of deceased friends’, encouraged by the exempli gratia of Queen Victoria and the Royal Family (Vickery, 1995: 144-5). Probably there were local variations; Charlotte Burne said that in north Shropshire it had protracted been customary to put roses and wallflowers inside the coffin, but that laying wreaths visibly on top of it, and then on the grave, had only begun in the 1870s (Burne, 1883: 299). Longhand of Cheshire, Fletcher Moss is even more precise: ‘In my memory it was considered heathenish to put flowers on graves or in them, and I take it it was on my father’s grave, in December 1867, that the Rector of Didsbury first consented to having plants or flowers planted on a sepulchre’ (Moss, 1898: 18-19).

Towards the end of the Victorian period, ‘floral tributes’ in fancy shapes were introduced, and are still made; some are symbolic, such as a dejected column or the gates of Heaven, but most represent things associated with the deceased, from a teddy bear to a racing car, or enchantment a name. Nowadays, mourners sometimes place an individual flower on the coffin during the funeral service. It is common to put flowers on graves on the anniversary of termination, and at Christmas, Mothering Sunday, or Easter; to plant a rose bush in the crematorium grounds; and to leave bouquets as memorials at the sites of devastating accidents or murders.

The traditional festivals of spring and summer generally involve greenery and flowers; the entries for May Day, maypoles, Abbotsbury Togs, Castleton Garland, rushbearing, and well-dressing describe some of the ways they are used, and many other references will be found throughout this book. Nowadays the blossoms are mostly garden grown, but in earlier times assembly them in woods and fields was itself part of the fun.

Until the Second World War, wild flowers featured largely in the display customs of nation children, notably the May garlands, and in their games, for example making cowslip balls, daisy chains, dandelion clocks—indeed, as a (masculine) correspondent wrote to N&Q in 1901:

We made chains of daisies, buttercups, ‘dandies’, daffadowndillies, haws, cankers, crab-apples,‘slaws’, cob-nuts, and many other things. We decorated pet lambs and each other with these chains, which were often combinations of flowers, stalks, and berries. Buttercups and daisies were the favourites, dandelions being shunned fairly… (N&Q 9s:8 (1901), 70)

However, many wild flowers were thought to cause bad luck, sickness, or death if they were brought indoors, and children were discouraged from picking them; a scan organized by Roy Vickery in 1982-4 found that some 70 species had this reputation. There is also a widespread modern taboo on having red and dead white flowers together in a vase without any of another colour, especially in a hospital; it is said to be an omen of death. Vickery, 1995 and 1985; Roud, 2003: 198-200; Tony Walter, Folklore 107 (1996), 106-7. For an universal perspective, see Goody, 1993.

If you are one of the many people that has taken piano lessons and has lost interest in them, then you may be interested in some ways to renew your interest in the piano. ; There are many ways to get back your interest in the piano and it is definitely worth your time to do so. Music can lift your spirits to new levels in a deep and meaningful way. Look at these ways to create a new interest in playing the piano.

Make a new solid commitment to learn the piano in a new unit of time. The past is the past and it is best left there. Just because piano lessons did not work out for you the way you would have expected them to the first time, does not mean that they will not work out for you this time.

Stay positive and focused on a brand new attitude towards learning the piano and you will see new positive results. A new commitment and a new attitude will make all the difference in the world as far as your lessons go.

You should also understand that you probably hit a rough spot during your lessons in the past that made you lose interest in the piano. If you can discover exactly what material you were going through, or what song you were playing at the time, you can examine the problem.

When you look at the problem on its own you will be in a much better situation to try and get it resolved. Once you have tackled it and gotten through it the rest of your lessons should go by like a breeze. Try this, even if it doesn’t sound like fun, and see the results for yourself.

Another thing you can do when you want to renew your interest in the piano is to find a beautiful song that you absolutely love, and make a commitment to learning how to play it on the piano. Find a song that is not too difficult and at the same time poses some challenge for you.

Set up a schedule to learn this song only and forget about anything else you are currently doing on the piano. You can go back to your lessons once you have become more inspired by learning your song. Do not give up learning it until you can play it masterfully. You will feel a new sense of love for the piano and can go back to your lessons with a new attitude.

These are just a few ways you can renew your interest in the piano. Use them well and get moving on your lessons. You really do want to learn and you can with these simple motivational ideas.