Flowers, Floriography, and Angel's Days

[werebear]

Hey all,

Are Floriography and Angel's Days still practiced? I know 8mar and on her birthday, but I love to give flowers for just about any reason. I just don't want to appear archaic. (even though I am, lol)

[mendeleyev]

Flowers are usually good and at some point if a RW doesn't care about them she will let you know.

Flowers are good for almost any holiday and in the FSU you see them given at New Years, Christmas, birthdays, 8 March, and one of the biggest days for flowers is to veterans on 9 May.

Flowers are very appropriate when you are a guest in someone's home.

Odd numbers generally.

By "angel" days you are referring to the "name day" which is the day of the saint for which a person is named. Other than Muslim and Jewish names, most Russians have a saint name and some of them celebrate it while others don't give it that much importance. In the Orthodox calendar there are saints celebrated on each day. When a baby is born the common practice is to name the child for the saint celebrated on the date closest to the baby's birth. Is it their "first" name and the one used at their baptism.

You might be surprised to know that common names like Tatiana, Olga, Svetlana, Vasily, Elizabeth, Marina, Helena, Viktoria, Ivan, Sergei, Boris, Aleksandr, Alexi, Anna, Dmitry, Maria, Cyrill, Nikolas, Nikita, Sofia, Maxim, Anastasia, Veronika, Zinaida, Kseniya, Viktor, Konstantin, and a long list of others are names of Orthodox saints.

С Днем Ангелом "with the day of the angel" is the common greeting when someone celebrates their "name day."

[werebear]

Thank you.