Where Did The Idea Of A Flower Girl At A Wedding Come From?
Lifestyle - News
By MARIE CARTAGENA
Today's flower girl follows the ring bearer and is the last member of the wedding party to walk down the aisle, providing the bride with a trail of flowers, marking the path towards a happy life with her soon-to-be spouse. This is the flower girl tradition popular today, but the roots of the role are a little different and not very well-known.
Flower girls can be traced back to Ancient Rome, where they "were included to encourage fertility" by distributing grains and herbs rather than flowers. As Europe entered the Medieval Period, the girls offered garlic and dill instead to ward off evil, and in the Elizabethan era, flower girls represented innocence and "carried a silver chalice known as a 'bride's cup.'"
The first use of "flower girl" to describe a child who traipses down the wedding aisle sprinkling flower petals was in 1902, but before that, a flower girl was a young woman who sold flowers. However, the concept of flowers strewn across a path dates back to 1838, when it was used to describe young girls who flung flowers along the way for Queen Victoria's coronation.