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Exceptional Mothers Day flowers fresh from the grower |
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The History Of Mother’s Day Flowers
Mother’s Day celebrations can be traced right back
to ancient spring festivals dedicated to mother goddesses. Ancient Greeks
worshipped Rhea, mother of gods and goddesses and wife of Cronus. As early as
250 BC Romans worshipped Cybele, a mother goddess.
During the 1600s England celebrated Mothering Sunday
on the fourth Sunday of Lent, the 40 day period leading up to Easter. During
this period in England, many of the country’s poor worked as servants for the
wealthy, often requiring them to live far from their own homes at those of their
employers. Mothering Sunday allowed the servants a day off to return home to
spend the day with their mothers. As workers walked along country lanes to
return home, it was customary to gather violets and other wild flowers for
nosegays to present to their mothers. A special cake, known as a mothering cake,
was often brought along to add to the festive touch of the day. The cake was a
very rich fruit cake. The richer the cake the better as Lent dictated it must be
kept until Easter. The cake would first be boiled in water and then baked and
sometimes had an almond icing. The mothering cake was also known as a simnel
cake. Simnel came from the Latin word simila meaning a high grade wheat flour.
As everyone would be together on this day, the entire family would attend church together followed by a dinner of roast lamb or veal where mother was treated as queen of the feast. By the nineteenth century the custom of Mothering Sunday was widespread. It was said that any youth going to visit parents, especially mothers, and bringing token gifts such as flowers or cake was “amothering.” As English society evolved with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, customs of Mothering Sunday waned.
In the United States, Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) first suggested Mother’s Day in 1870 as a day dedicated to peace. Howe was involved with many pursuits and causes. She was an active participant in the early fight for womens’ rights and the abolition of slavery. Having witnessed the devastating effects of the American Civil War (1861-65) not just for soldiers in battle but for the widows and orphans left behind, Howe became famous for public speaking about the ravages of war. With the Franco Prussian War raging in France, she called on all women to rise above the national lines that divided them and oppose all forms of war. Although credited with the 1870 introduction of Mother’s Day, Howe is best known for her poem Battle Hymn of the Republic.
In 1907 Anna Jarvis
(1864-1948) began a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day. Initially
she convinced Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia where her
mother had taught Sunday school for 20 years to hold a service on the second
anniversary of her mother’s death. On the same date another service was
conducted in Philadelphia where Mrs. Jarvis died leaving her two daughters Anna
and Elsinore. It was at this service that carnations were introduced as a
widespread symbol of love for one’s mother. Anna chose carnations as they were
her mother’s favourite flower and placed large jars of white carnations on the
platform where the service was held. At the end of the service, a white
carnation was given to each person present as a souvenir of Mother’s Day.
White carnations have come to be considered symbolic of love for a mother who
has died or is far away and red or pink carnations are for mothers that are
close by and living.
By 1910 the governor
of West Virginia proclaimed the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day in that
state and Oklahoma celebrated that same year. By the following year all states
had adopted their own observance of Mother’s Day. There was such popularity
around the occasion that the Mother’s Day International Association was
founded on December 12, 1912. The association was to encourage meaningful
observance of the event around the globe. Mother’s Day was soon celebrated in
Canada, Mexico, South America, Africa, China and Japan. In May of 1913 the House
of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the President and
all other representatives of the federal government to wear a white carnation on
Mother’s Day. The following year a resolution was passed and on May 9, 1914
President Woodrow Wilson issued his Mother’s Day Proclomation;
“Now, Therefore, I Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested
in me by the said Joint Resolution, do hereby direct the government buildings
and do invite the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes
or other suitable places on the second Sunday in
May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of
our Country.” Each year, a similar proclomation is issued by the President.
In 1934, the
Postmaster General introduced a stamp that featured the famous painting,
“Arrangement in Grey and Black” to commemorate Mother’s Day. The painting
had been brought to America as part of an exhibit that year and was a portrait
of the mother of the English artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The painting
is commonly referred to as “Whistler’s mother.”
Now, the second Sunday of May is among the most popular days to dine out and phone lines record their highest traffic. Millions of cards and flowers are given to mothers around the globe as sons and daughters honor their mothers for all they’ve done.
