The surprising reason why people give each other yellow flowers on March 21 in some countries

Once again, yellow flowers are trending on social media and across the internet. In recent years TikTok users will have seen people in Mexico and several other Latin American countries gifting each other yellow flowers on March 21.

Many have assumed that it’s an long-standing tradition but it’s actually more of a recent trend. Here’s everything you need to know...

Why did people start giving each other yellow flowers?

If you first encountered the ‘yellow flowers’ trend online that’s because it was popularised on TikTok. It relates to the ”Flores Amarillas” (”Yellow Flowers”) song that will be familiar to fans of the Argentine telenovella, Floricienta.

The show features a young woman, Floricienta, who works as a babysitter in the house of the Fritzenwalde family in Florence. The show follows the family as the eldest son, Federico, cares for his younger siblings and, over time, falls in love with Floricienta.

The TikTok trend makes reference to a specific part of the “Yellow Flowers” song in which Floricienta explains that she had always dreamed of receiving yellow flowers. Viewers of the show have transformed this idea into a viral trend. The latest TikTok trend therefore focuses on romantic couples, who are encouraged to give each other yellow flowers to express the love they have for one another.

What do the yellow flowers mean?

When given to people who are romantically involved, they symbolize love and commitment, as alluded to in both the lyrics of the song and the story Federico and Floricienta. But although the origin of the yellow flowers trend is clearly rooted in romantic love, that is not the only interpretation.

Other have taken the colour yellow as a symbol for other concepts, like friendship, achievement or happiness. The trend’s vagueness has allowed it become reinterpreted by users around the world, who have helped to usher in this new ‘tradition’.

But why March 21? In Mexico, the yellow flowers trend has been focused on that date as it represents the start of spring. The gifting of a yellow flower is now a token of good fortune, as well as the romantic and social meanings. In other countries, like Brazil and Ecuador, the yellow flowers are given on September 21, again marking the changing of the seasons.

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