MOTHER'S DAY FACTS & FIGURES
| Published: 22nd January 2008 14:16 |
FROM THE FLOWERS & PLANTS ASSOCIATION
the UK's promotional organisation for cut flowers and indoor plants
The earliest celebration honouring mothers dates back to the annual spring festival of ancient Greece dedicated to Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. The Greeks would pay tribute with honey-cakes and fine drinks and flowers at dawn. Continuing this tradition, Mother's Day is still the biggest flower-buying day in the year in Britain: each year sales increase by an average of 70% on a normal day's trading. More cut flowers and houseplants are bought for our mums than on Valentine's Day for our partners! We spend over £85 million on floral gifts for this day, following in a long tradition of presenting our mothers with sweet-smelling fresh seasonal flowers.
In the UK, Mother's day is celebrated on the 4th Sunday in Lent (this year on 2 March) but in other countries around the world, it is celebrated at different times. In Europe most countries honour their mothers on the second Sunday in May as do the Americans. May 10th is the day dedicated to mothers in many Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Many of these countries also use flowers to celebrate:
- in Canada and the US, the traditional Mother's Day flower is a carnation, either pink carnations given to mothers to represent love for them, or white carnations worn in respect for those mothers who are no longer living.
- A very vogue flower to give to mums in the UK in the 50's and 60's was a single Cattleya orchid, which has a big, blowsy head and was traditionally given to girls on their prom night in the US as a wrist corsage. Nowadays there are hundreds of different varieties of orchid to choose from. Give your mum a pleasant surprise with a beautifully patterned cymbidium orchid. These come as a chic cut flower or stunning houseplant.
- Spring flowers are also strongly associated with Mothers Day - choose from flowers such as tulips, scented narcissi and daffodils for an authentic mother's day bouquet.
But do spare a thought for the mothers of Yugoslavia:
- On the second Sunday before Christmas, children creep in and tie their mother's feet to a chair, shouting 'Mother's Day, Mother's Day, what will you pay to get away?' Surprisingly, she then gives them presents!
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