What Does the Carnation Mean? An Analysis of the Latest Floral Symbolism
Everyone knows that the second Sunday of May each year is a very warm-hearted holiday——Mother's Day. On this day, attentive and filial children all buy a bouquet of carnations and give them personally to the mother who gave them life and raised them, to repay her years of nurturing love. But do you know what the carnation means? What exactly is the connection between Mother's Day and carnations? Let's take a look together below!
What Does the Carnation Mean
The carnation carries symbolic meanings such as passion, charm, love that makes one gentle and tender, true affection, mother I love you, warm blessings, loving you, warmth, kindness, selfless motherly love, tolerance, flower of mothers, deep family affection, longing for family, pure admiration, passionate love, warm-heartedness, sorrow and regret, pain, greatness, sacredness, kindness, consolation, spiritual connection, sincerity, good fortune, and longing.
Carnation Floral Meanings by Different Colors
1. White: sweet and lovely, innocent and pure, pure love, a gift that brings good luck to women, purity, pure friendship, my living love, my love endures forever, faith, elegant love, true affection, respect.
2. Pink: I will never forget you, beauty, youth, passionate love, wishing mother forever young and beautiful; being moved, brightness, motherly love, a woman's love, I love you passionately.
3. Red: my heart aches for you, appreciation, admiration, infatuation, motherly love, family affection, passionate love, warmth, a wounded heart, longing, believing in your love, wishing mother health and longevity, wishing you good health.
4. Yellow: you disappoint me, abandonment, contempt, lasting friendship, gratitude to mother, rejection, disdain, contempt, eternal thanks, deep friendship.
Mother's Day and Carnations
May 9, 1906 was an ordinary day, but for Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, USA, it was a day of heartbreak, because on that day her deeply beloved mother left her forever. In the days that followed, she wept every day, missing her endlessly.
In 1907, at the anniversary commemoration of her mother's death, she hoped everyone would wear white carnation flowers to commemorate her departed mother, and she proposed that the second Sunday of May each year be Mother's Day. So she wrote countless letters to many influential figures, putting forward this suggestion of hers.
On May 10, 1908, through her unremitting efforts, her hometown of Philadelphia organized and held the world's first “Mother's Day” celebration. Subsequently, the Presbyterian Church in Seattle, USA, took the lead in launching activities honoring mothers. The famous American literary giant Mark Twain wrote a personal letter to Miss Anna Jarvis, praising her great initiative and expressing that he too would wear a white carnation to mourn his loving mother.
On May 7, 1914, through the unremitting efforts of Anna and many others, the US Congress finally passed a resolution designating the second Sunday of each year as National Mother's Day, to express reverence and gratitude to all mothers, and President Wilson issued it for enforcement on May 9 of the same year.
On May 14, 1914, the first Mother's Day on a national scale was held in the United States.
In May 1934, the United States issued a Mother's Day stamp for the first time. On the stamp was a mother with both hands resting on her knees, joyfully looking at a bouquet of bright and beautiful carnations in a vase in front of her. As the stamp spread, people in many minds came to associate Mother's Day with carnations. The carnation thus became the flower symbolizing motherly love and was held in people's esteem. People placed their feelings of missing their mothers and respecting their mothers onto the carnation, and the carnation also became an indispensable gift for giving to mothers.
When Mother's Day was introduced to China, we do not know, but since the 1990s, many Western holidays have gradually been introduced to China, and Mother's Day was the same. For Chinese people, the greatness of Chinese mothers is unmatched by any ethnic group, so Mother's Day spread quickly in China and has now become one of China's important holidays.