May Day in the Victorian Era - When Flowers Spoke Louder Than Words
This month we were researching the use of letters throughout certain aspects of England's history, and we stumbled across a lovely little piece that we knew we had to share.
In Victorian Britain, where emotions were often held back behind tight corsets and closed drawing room doors, May Day offered a rare and joyful excuse to express feeling - quietly, beautifully and often anonymously. It was a day when flowers did the talking.
On the 1st of May, it became tradition - especially during the 19th century - to create and deliver small bundles of spring flowers, either placed delicately in woven baskets or tied with ribbon and lace. These “May Day posies” were left on doorsteps or hung from doorknobs, usually in the early morning hours, as a silent gesture of kindness, admiration, or even secret affection.
And like so many things Victorian, it wasn’t just about the flowers - it was about the message they carried.
Tucked inside these little floral offerings was often a note - brief, handwritten, and unsigned. Sometimes it was a line of poetry, sometimes a seasonal greeting, and sometimes a more romantic message left carefully anonymous. These were not grand declarations, but rather tender, quiet expressions - what we might now call floral “letters.”
This wasn’t just a sentimental whim; it was part of a wider language. The Victorians were famously obsessed with floriography - the art of assigning meaning to flowers. A sprig of lily-of-the-valley spoke of sweetness and humility. Forget-me-nots, as their name suggests, carried messages of remembrance. Violets symbolised faithfulness. A posy wasn’t simply there to be admired - it was encoded.
May Day became a kind of soft rebellion against silence, a once-a-year chance to say what you felt, to remind someone they were thought of, or to brighten a neighbour’s doorstep with nothing more than blooms and a slip of paper.
What can we take from it today?
In a world of quick taps and instant messages, the idea of taking the time to arrange a handful of flowers, handwrite a note, and deliver it with no expectation of reply feels beautifully radical.
This May, why not borrow from the Victorians? Send a small card with pressed flowers. Leave a bundle of spring blooms at a friend’s door. Or post a handwritten letter with a nod to the season.
After all, some messages are best delivered slowly, softly…and in bloom.