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Flowers and roadside shrines

TheCatWoman

Over the years I've noticed more and more bunches of flowers left at roadsides usually the scene of an accident, when did that start? I don't remember it being a thing when I was younger. Obviously we use flowers at funerals and memorial services like Armistice Day. 

I remember it really being a thing when Diana, Princess of Wales died, the tons of flowers left at palaces around London and them being thrown in front of the hearse as they they drove to her internment.

But now they seem to be everywhere, not that I think it's a bad thing, I think it's good for there to be a place where people can show common humanity and compassion both for those who were lost and those who survive. 

I do find myself wondering at the symbolism of it though. Just after someone has died I can see that their spirit might be attached to the place of death, but after a year or two, shouldn't the symbols move on to the place of burial or scattering? Surely the spirit dosen't hang about it's departure point to the afterlife? 

As we're so much more of a secular country now and churches play a less important role in the lives of many, I think we might need a new narrative around death to fit a secular age, I don't think we're any less spiritual for being secular, the flowers show that impulse is there, but we dont' seem to know what to do with it.

 What do you think?

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  • I don’t like roadside shrines at all.

    I think people generally should be free to choose how to live their lives so long as they aren’t harming others or the environment. The trouble is, many of these shrines look tatty and I don’t think it’s fair to impose them on people who live beside them or have to pass them every day. I think social media has contributed to the idea of a very public expression of emotion through roadside shrines. There is an individualism in the younger generation that people of my generation didn’t have, but at the same time, there is cultural collectivism that expresses itself through shrines.

    There is an additional issue in my area as many shrines are filled with religious and/or political insignia which can alienate a significant percentage of the population. A shrine near me has a football scarf wrapped around a beautiful tree and football jerseys nailed to its trunks. It’s been like that for years. 

    I don’t think it’s possible to guess the motives and religious/non religious leanings of those who make such shrines or gather round them. I would think there would be mixture of beliefs or life philosophies. There is definitely a cultural shift away from organised religion, particularly Christianity in this country. Many people are missing the sacramental practice of Christianity and perhaps making a shrine is filling the gap. 

    Personally, I don’t feel the need to have a new narrative around death. I would like to be deposited in the ground without ceremony. I’m more interested in a narrative of ‘living a good life’. Asking questions such as, “What is a good life”?

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  • I don’t like roadside shrines at all.

    I think people generally should be free to choose how to live their lives so long as they aren’t harming others or the environment. The trouble is, many of these shrines look tatty and I don’t think it’s fair to impose them on people who live beside them or have to pass them every day. I think social media has contributed to the idea of a very public expression of emotion through roadside shrines. There is an individualism in the younger generation that people of my generation didn’t have, but at the same time, there is cultural collectivism that expresses itself through shrines.

    There is an additional issue in my area as many shrines are filled with religious and/or political insignia which can alienate a significant percentage of the population. A shrine near me has a football scarf wrapped around a beautiful tree and football jerseys nailed to its trunks. It’s been like that for years. 

    I don’t think it’s possible to guess the motives and religious/non religious leanings of those who make such shrines or gather round them. I would think there would be mixture of beliefs or life philosophies. There is definitely a cultural shift away from organised religion, particularly Christianity in this country. Many people are missing the sacramental practice of Christianity and perhaps making a shrine is filling the gap. 

    Personally, I don’t feel the need to have a new narrative around death. I would like to be deposited in the ground without ceremony. I’m more interested in a narrative of ‘living a good life’. Asking questions such as, “What is a good life”?

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