Mother's Day carnations?

[cyclonefence]

Anybody else grow up in a place and time when Mother's Day was celebrated with carnation corsages worn to church? Red or pink if your mother was alive, white if she was dead. As a kid, I wanted it to be red for alive, white for dead, and pink for ailing. As usual, nobody asked my opinion.

[3catwoman3]

1. That is a new one on me.

Kinda creepy, IMO.

[Grammy23]

6. I grew up in the South (Jackson, MS).

On Mother's Day the moms wore flowers (not necessarily carnations) to church to indicate whether their moms were alive or deceased. Red was for the living and white for deceased moms. I don't know if this was universal in the U.S. but my mom always made sure she wore a corsage to church on Mother's Day. Since I am pretty much a heathen these days, I have no idea if the moms wear color coded corsages to church. I am pretty sure mothers are still recognized at the services.

[dawg]

2. We did this. Red for living and white for deceased.

It was a thing in Georgia. Probably still is.

[irisblue]

3. Carnations were in Michigan in the 70s.

I still got red carnations for my momma.

[mnhtnbb]

4. My husband and I were married the day before Mother's Day in 1985 in Los Angeles.

He had booked us in to the Disneyland hotel on our wedding night (prom night and crazy at the hotel).
The next morning we went to Disneyland and they were handing out carnations to every woman
coming through the gate. I had never heard of the custom--but accepted a red carnation--and wore
it all day at Disneyland. We headed for LAX that evening and flew to France where we honeymooned for
a month, but I still remember getting that carnation for Mother's Day when I was NOT a mother.

[Ilsa]

5. Yes. Exactly that, red for living, white for dead. nt

[Warpy]

7. My mother was not fond of carnations

The last Mother's Day she had, I sent her roses so she could smell them even if she couldn't see well enough to admire them. I ordered cheerful yellow, she got red. Oh, well.

I've never paid a whole lot of attention to the language of flowers, I'll leave that to the Victorians along with the plethora of overspecialized silverware I inherited from them.

[Leghorn21]

8. I have heard, though not personally experienced, this. I find it very sweet and

moving, and your suggestion of "pink" for "ailing" is as well - when one's mama is ailing, it's generally a very hard time, and maybe extra hugs from an understanding congregation help a daughter "cope" just a tiny bit better -

[masmdu]

9. They were handing out pink carnations to all women today at the Walmart (NC).