In the holy Indian city of Varanasi, the bodies of the dead are draped in garlands of marigolds before being cremated on the banks of the Ganges River. According to Hindu teachings, marigolds embody purity, strength and new beginnings, which means that they feature in rituals of all kinds, from political rallies to sacred festivals to weddings. In cities and towns across India, vendors display them heaped into small mountains or strung into ropes, which are used to adorn the necks of newlyweds or to embellish ceremonial altars. The petals can also be dried into a digestion-aiding tea or simmered in water to make a natural dye.
A hardy, forgiving crop, marigolds are grown across India year-round, though cultivation is most active before the major autumn festivals of Dussehra and Diwali, both of which celebrate the triumph of light over darkness. But while marigolds are emblems of Indian culture, the flower isn’t native. Though mentions of a saffron-colored blossom appear in ancient Indian scriptures and — according to the cultural historian and environmentalist Nanditha Krishna, the author of “Hinduism and Nature” (2017) — terra-cotta plaques from 300 to 100 B.C. depict people using marigold-like blooms for prayer and ritual, this flower was likely the Calendula officinalis. The marigold as we know it — Tagetes erecta — originated in what is now Mexico, where it was also an exalted flower, revered by the Aztecs as a gift from the sun god to bless the dead. (Just as the marigold helps bid farewell to the dead in India, it also figures prominently in Día de los Muertos celebrations, where paths lined with the flower are meant to lead the souls of lost loved ones back home.) The seeds of the marigold eventually came to India via Spanish and Portuguese traders in the 16th century; the plants adapted quickly and abundantly, eventually usurping the calendula.
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