Occasions in Delhi

Occasions in Delhi: from florists' flower fans to a bouquet at your door

In 1812, Delhi's florists carried pankhas, fans woven from flowers, to the Yogmaya temple and the dargah of Bakhtiyar Kaki in Mehrauli, in a procession called Phool Walon Ki Sair. Occasions in Delhi today run from lunar festivals to personal dates, each one asking for its own colour and shape of bouquet.

From Raksha Bandhan to a housewarming: the occasions behind an order

Birthday, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day sit beside two festivals with pages of their own: Raksha Bandhan and Diwali, both set by a date the moon decides rather than the Western calendar. Festival dates shift from year to year, so neither keeps the same day twice running.

Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday of May and is kept informally rather than as a public holiday, and 8 March passes in Delhi as an ordinary working day. Personal dates fill out the rest of the section: an anniversary, a housewarming, the birth of a child, a plain thank-you to someone who helped.

Wrapping in red, maroon, gold or yellow reads as a lucky choice for most of these occasions, and in Delhi a gift is traditionally handed over with both hands, or with the right hand alone.

A young woman sits on the stone steps of the medieval ruins at Hauz Khas at sunset, the lake behind her, raising a bouquet of red roses and yellow gerberas in red-and-gold paper to smell it — Red and gold wrapping reads as festive in Delhi for many occasions.

Dhanteras to Bhai Dooj: flowers for a festival that moves each year

Karva Chauth, Dhanteras, Diwali and Bhai Dooj follow one another across roughly two weeks between late October and mid-November. The dates move every year, since each festival is fixed by the lunar calendar. Among them only Diwali flowers mark a public holiday; the rest stay family occasions, with no day off work attached.

Each festival has its own recipient. Karva Chauth is a gift for a wife, Dhanteras and Diwali itself go to the household as a whole, and Bhai Dooj belongs to a brother. Offices keep the season too, though colleagues more often pass round a box of sweets than a bouquet.

For Diwali itself, a bouquet in red and gold keeps to the festival's own colours, and a basket that stands on a table without a vase suits a house already full of lamps and guests.

A young woman opens the door of a south Delhi house under a garland of orange marigolds, a rangoli pattern on the threshold, and takes a bouquet in front of her — Marigolds over the door and a rangoli on the step: a home ready for the festival week.

Wedding anniversaries that return with the November season

North India's wedding season opens after Dev Uthani Ekadashi in November and runs on through winter, with a pause in the middle of December known as kharmas. November itself draws the most weddings, which means a good many Delhi couples carry their wedding anniversary into that same month, or into the colder weeks that follow it.

Anniversary, Wedding Anniversary and Golden Wedding Anniversary all sit in the same section of the site. For any of them, red roses suit the occasion, and the 11 Red French Roses bouquet makes the point without a card needed to explain it. Where the evening is marked with dinner at home, a box in the same red sits on the table as it is, while a wrapped bouquet would first need a vase found for it.

A newborn, a new home or a loss: what white means in Delhi

White flowers, and white garlands above all, read as mourning in Delhi, and so do frangipani and chrysanthemums once they stand alone in white wrapping. Good news calls for the opposite palette: a bouquet in mixed colour, not plain white or black. The birth of a child, a new flat marked with a housewarming or a discharge from hospital all call for something like the Lily and Gerbera Bouquet.

None of this rules lilies out on their own: set among other colours they belong to a celebration as much as any other flower. White keeps its place at the other end of the calendar, in a bouquet sent for sympathy. Which wards in Delhi's hospitals take flowers at all, and how a bouquet holds up through the city's hottest months, both sit on the flowers in Delhi page.

A dark silhouette of a figure in a corridor against a tall dusty window with one cracked pane; a low box of white flowers, lit from the side, held in both hands — An all-white box keeps to the colour Delhi saves for sympathy.

Occasion flower delivery in Delhi for a proposal, a date or an apology

8 February opens Valentine's week as Propose Day, though a confession of love rarely waits for a date on the calendar, and the section also covers date night, an apology and a plain thank-you. A restaurant booking usually settles the timing on its own: the hour is agreed with the venue beforehand, and the bouquet comes out with dessert or with the first toast.

Delivery itself works the same way for every occasion in this group. The courier hands the bouquet over in person along with its card, adding nothing beyond what the sender asked for. The card can carry a signature or stay blank for an anonymous flower delivery, and a photo of the finished bouquet goes out before the courier even sets off. Around 14 February and Mother's Day, open slots run fewer, so booking a few days ahead works better than leaving it to the same afternoon. The time it takes shows on the bouquet's own page, and the delivery across the city page covers the rest.

Housewarming and a confession of love sit at opposite ends of this section: one marks a home already full of people, the other is meant for just one person to read. Housewarming is the easier of the two to picture, its colour and format settled by the room it's going into, while confession of love only needs the flowers to arrive first and the words to follow.