Mother's Day and Carnation
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Mother's Day and Carnation have had an association for a very long time because according to a Christian legend, this is the plant that sprung up when Jesus Christ's mother Mary shed tears of distress seeing her son enduring sufferings with the cross. Anna Jarvis, in 1907, chose carnation as the emblem of Mother's Day. Anna Jarvis distributed carnations in St. Andrew's Methodist Episcopal church in West Virginia[1].
White carnation is thought to be ideal for Mother's Day because according to Jarvis, whiteness stood for qualities like purity, faithfulness, fragrance, and love[2].
White carnations are associated with the sad feeling of mother being absent, either due to death or due to the distance that separates the mother and the child. Red and pink carnations symbolize the feelings of affection for a mother who is alive.
