8th April 2024

Did you know that in Holland, a husband has to take flowers home for his wife on a Friday or he is in big trouble? It’s a lovely anecdote that got us wondering about the different ways flowers are used for celebrations around Europe...

The Channels Islands

Visit Jersey or Guernsey in August and you’ll see the Battle of Flowers, when floats are adorned with thousands of blooms. The tradition started in the early 1900s, and originally there was a real ‘battle’ between participants and spectators, with the flowers used as ammunition. That bit has since stopped but the event is still a great excuse for a party and fireworks.

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Belgium

Every other year, more than one million blooms are used to create a giant flower carpet in the Grand Place in Brussels. It’s the work of the Tapis de Fleurs de Bruxelles and is simply there to celebrate the square's beauty. It is in situ every August in even years on the weekend around Assumption Day (this year’s dates are August 15-18).

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Madeira

If it’s May in Funchal, it has to be the Festival da Flor, when hundreds of flowers bring a riot of colour to the city’s streets to celebrate the arrival of spring. During the festivities, children place flowers on a floral wall of hope, flower carpets on the streets, a flower parade is seen, and dozens of colourful floats parade through the capital. There are live concerts among the blooms, a classic car parade and a flower competition, with competing blooms displayed along Avenida do Mar.

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The Netherlands

We can’t mention flower festivals without circling back to the Netherlands, where spring is welcomed every April with a parade of colourful floats buried under carpets of blooming tulips, daffodils and hyacinths. This is such a big event (on April 12 in 2025) that there are seven covered grandstands along the 42km route from Noordwijk to Haarlem so you can watch in comfort.

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