These questions are for my friends in India:
Have you had beer from a keg or done a keg stand, while in India?
Spent an afternoon with your family or friends making flower crowns?
I am honestly curious to know how many of you say a ‘Yes’ to that.
‘Keg stand’, ‘make a flower crown’, these words were like Greek to me! The look on my buddy’s face when I told her this, was priceless! I now know why the USA government calls us ‘Aliens’. Just kidding, I still hate that! I’ll rant about being called an alien on another day. Today, is about cultural differences when growing up in India vs the United States. I’m pretty sure there is an exhaustive list someone’s put together about this, but this is the story of my experiences these past two weekends.
Before flower crowns became the butt of several internet memes and jokes, (remember the ones with dogs, cats and all other pets with flowers in their hair, on 9Gag?) they were fond childhood memories for some of my friends growing up here in the United States. It seems, that it was common to sit around your backyard and pluck spring flowers to make flower crowns. As my friend narrated her stories about growing ip in California, I remember thinking, her life seems like what they show in the movies!
When I was growing up, I was told that trees and plants are living creatures and we’d hurt them if we pluck flowers or leaves. It was considered disrespectful to Mother Nature. Honestly, I still don’t pluck flowers, fruits or leaves or I cringe a little if I must do it. My mom would say, how would you like it if someone plucked your ear! Oh, the horror! So all I did was look at the flowers and admired them from a distance, sometimes going closer to smell them roses!
Of course, in India we wear flowers in our hair, fragrant jasmine strings and sometimes accessories made out of fresh flowers in our braids, but making flower crowns for fun as you lay around in the sun? Nah, not really.
On a beautiful Sunday at Fairmount Park, my friend was on a mission to teach me how to make flower crowns & I couldn’t have been more game. Oh! the romance of the sun on my back and tiny yellow dandelions dotting the vast green acres! It’s an afternoon I won’t forget. So here’s how to make a flower crown with any flowers you have at home. You don’t need wires, needles, threads or anything. It’s all just nature.
- Pluck a bunch of tiny dandelions
- Puncture holes in the stems with your nails
- Slide the stem of one flowers through the other
- Follow the process to make a flower tail
- Now close the loop to make a crown or keep it open and wrap it around your braid!
Pick some flowers!
Puncture holes in the stem
Wear the crown!
Meanwhile, I’m super excited about this weekend in Philly. So many things to do choose from, here are my favorites!
- Get smarter over the weekend, go to the Science Carnival at Penn’s landing!
- Get into a kite war at the Kite Fest at Penn Treaty Park!
- Prefer to just drink and listen to music and couldn’t go to NOLA for the Jazz Fest? Center City Jazz fest in Philly will help you from feeling low: Get tickets here
- Sunday’s are for summer block parties. Win tickets to this weekend’s event at Brick House Bar and Grill tonight!
- Drive to Fairmount Park, with the dogs, kids, partner, friends. Find a spot and picnic
- Don’t drive, just want to Schuylkill River trail and picnic!
