The Americans have Halloween, the Czechs – All Souls’ Day. The day to honour the memory of the deceased falls upon 2 November. Visits of cemeteries and All Souls’ wreaths are the symbols of this day. Make your own wreath to remember your relatives. We have a couple of advices and tips to inspire you.

For the All Souls’ wreaths, choose decent dry material which will last a long time without any other care. The autumn nature offers plenty of decorative items – colourful plants and fruits – and there is more than enough of material everywhere around us.

What do you need for an All Souls’ wreath?

When making an All Souls’ wreath, use spruce, pine or fir branches, everlasting flowers, cones, moss, chestnuts, and rowanberries – everything you find attractive when you go for a walk. Dried flowers of annuals look wonderful too, and the most popular ones include Craspedia globose, Gomphrena, Celosia cristata (known as cockscomb) or Limonium sinuatum (commonly known as sea lavender).

For the wreath framework, can use a straw, polyester or wicker body you can get at the florist’s. You can also make the body yourself – all you need is a pliable branch and a firm wire. You don’t have to create the classic circle, a heart shape looks also very nice.

How to make the wreath base?

You can create the wreath base from cut branches of an evergreen conifer, cypress or boxwood. If you can choose, go for a pine tree because it lasts longer and does not shed its needles unlike spruce or yew. If you want to achieve a perfect impression, lay some moss on the framework under the branches – but it is not necessary.

Layer the branches one after another like roofing tiles and tighten them with a tin wire around the whole framework. Alternatively, you can wrap the wreath in colourful leaves. Don’t worry about the parts which seem uneven or stick out, they will create a great impression of patulousness.

Add some colours to the wreath

You can also use branches with cones or flowers and fruits and tie into bigger bundles. Tie everything up with a firm thread or a binding wire around the framework. Skilful decorators will surely dare to make wreaths with cones or beechnuts as the base. It is hard work but the result is certainly worth it. Wire up the cones and beechnuts and dig them into the framework as close to one another as possible.

How to decorate All Souls’ wreaths?

Finally, add some dried flowers and fruits. Engage in a flight of fancy or memories of the deceased – what were their favourite colours and flowers? You can use yarrow, lavender, and heather, leaves of grass or corn. Look around and see how much the autumn landscape has to offer. A fuse pistol will help you decorate the smaller parts.

Photo – source: Pixabay.com, Dreamstime.com