Unfading Colour, and the Flower of the Dead

The bloom holds its colour for an extraordinary length of time, on the plant and after cutting, and dries almost without loss; that single property is the root of nearly all its symbolism. In the western language of flowers it stands for immortality, unfading affection and, with a lighter touch, for foppery and good humour, the last from the strut of the bird whose comb it copies. The same durability gave it a place in ritual use across the tropics: in Mexico the crimson cresta de gallo is one of the flowers of the Day of the Dead altars alongside the marigold, and in parts of India and Nepal celosia is used in temple garlands and, in Nepal, in the garlands of the Tihar festival. These are living practices of particular communities, described here from the outside; where the atlas records them, the local meaning belongs to the community that keeps it, and the general emblem of unfading colour is the western reading rather than a universal one.