Carnations have been associated with Mother's Day for a very long time. According to Christian legend, a carnation sprang up when Jesus Christ's mother, Mary, shed tears of distress seeing her son enduring sufferings on the cross. Then in 1907, Anna Jarvis used carnations at the first Mother's Day celebration because they were her mother's favourite flowers. Anna Jarvis handed out 500 carnations at her mother's church, St. Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia - one for each mother in the congregation.
White carnations are used to honour a mother who is deceased, while red or pink carnations symbolize the feelings of affection for a mother who is living.
Just as I have for decades, I will pin my rose to my bosom as I go off to church this Sunday. Since 1997, I have been wearing a white rose.
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