The Reason For Choosing Carnations

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In 1908 Anna Jarvis organized the first Mother's Day official observation in order to honor her mother. It being her favorite flower she sent 500 white carnations to her mother on the first formal Mother’s Day observation on May 10 of that year. In an interview for Parent's magazine in 1927 Jarvis explained the symbolism. “Around the white carnation, I wove a sentiment,” she said. “Its whiteness is to symbolize the truth, purity and broad charity of mother love; its fragrance, her memory and her prayers. The carnation does not drop its petals but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so, too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never dying.” Isn't that lovely?