If you are visiting France at the end of October you will find supermarkets and DIY stores with tents of chrysanthemums for sale. It's a bright and unexpected sight which contrasts with the colder weather and dark nights. So what's going on?
1 November is La Toussaint (All Saint's Day), followed by Fete des Morts (Festival of the Dead) on 2 November. 1 November is a public holiday (jour férié), so whatever day it falls on be prepared for a national shut down.
La Toussaint is a Catholic holiday honoring all Saints, but for most French people (including those of no religion) it's a day to pay respects to deceased relatives. It is one of the busiest days on the road network, as families travel all over France to gather together and visit cemeteries to clean and decorate their families tombs.
This is where the chrysanthemums come in. These flowers started appearing on graves in cemeteries across Western Europe in the 19th century, when they replaced candles. After WWI, the French President Raymond Poincaré called on the nation to lay blooms on the graves of fallen soldiers. As one of the rare flowers in bloom in November it became the flower of choice for cemeteries, with hundreds of thousands of widows laying blooms at their fallen husbands' memorials. The chrysanthemum is now forever associated with Toussaint and death, so don't give it to a French host as a thank you … that would be a very mixed message!
Around 25 million pots of chrysanthemums are placed on French graves on the 1st of November and up to 100 million Euros are spent on flowers for this day.
The pictures from our local cemetery in La Coquille give you an idea of just how beautiful the flower displays are. A ray of sunshine as we go into winter.
