Chinese Superstition on Death

“Never give anyone white flowers because it is the color of death.”

My friend Jasmine told me of this superstition when I was deciding to buy some flowers for my friends new apartment as a welcoming gift. My friend loves white lilies and I saw a nice vase to go with it. Jasmine suggested that any white flower is a bad gift to give someone because the color white entails death. She explained that the funerals she had attended back in Singapore, everyone brought white lilies to signify that one has passed through life. But if white flowers are given to someone alive, it brings bad luck or at the worst death.

 

I’ve heard this one before except in a different variation. I’ve heard that mixing red and white flowers together can bring death to someone. I always believed the color white to be a sign of rebirth or regeneration. I never thought white could be the color death since I was always led to think that black was the color signifying death or bad luck.