Human Flower Project

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Two Miles of Brush Flowers

Young people in Romania set a new record with a floral mural.

Strolling among panels of painted flowers

in Bucharest, Romania, November 18

Photo:  Bogdan Cristel, for Reuters

Students of Nicolae Tonitza High School in Bucharest, the Romanian capital, bore down with paint brushes yesterday at Baneasa Airport, putting 200 meters’ worth of final touches on an immense mural. The finished painting measured 3,464 meters long (two miles and then some) and qualifies as “the longest painting painted by children,” according to the Guinness World Record keepers. The title had been held by a children’s group from the United Arab Emirates.

The Romanian mural is floral, the theme selected by UNICEF official Wajidha Haris. “I chose flowers since they are an international symbol of children,” said Haris. Are they? We hadn’t realized this.

They certainly seem to be so in Romania. We’ve been reading about Casa Florilor—Flower House—in Lazu. Set up in association with the medical center of Baylor University, it’s a residence for children with HIV/AIDS.

And there’s an interesting reference in this 19th century essay about country life, written by Carmen Sylvia—the pen name of Romanian Queen Elizabeth. Describing customs of folk decoration, she wrote that peasant women “dip their hands in colors, red and blue, and stamp them on the window and door casings, the five fingers thus taking the place of the acanthus leaf…. When there is in the house a marriageable girl, flowers are painted on the wall, but should the maid have made a misstep, the lads go and blot the flowers out.”

Here, as in many wedding ceremonies, flowers represent childhood’s virginity, but as for flowers being a universal expression of children, we haven’t seen much evidence of that. Perhaps our readers will weigh in with help on this topic. ARE flowers “an international symbol” of children, or of peace, or of something else?