Mother's Day Traditions

With Mother's Day in North America this coming weekend, some of the traditions around the celebration of our moms come to mind. Aunt Marie Smith tells about Mother's Day in Corner Brook years ago when she was a child. The children made flowers by twisting crepe paper into the shape of roses, often leaving their hands full of dye. The color of the rose signified whether the mother was alive or deceased, 

red for a living mother, 

white for the deceased. 

Men wore the appropriate rose in their lapels and they dressed in suits and ties, attending Church on Sunday afternoon. The day was really commemorated on a community level.

Aunt Marie accompanied her family to the Salvation Army Church in the afternoon where the Sunday school children did a pageant for the mothers. At the end of the pageant each child pinned the flower on his or her mother. While Marie and her family were not of the Salvation Army faith, they joined others  at that church to celebrate the occasion.

In our family, for the last number of years, we celebrate with a meal of lobsters, the first of the season. 

This tradition started in Newfoundland, before we moved to Prince Edward Island. However, this year the season has a late start because of ice conditions around our island home. Lobster fishermen are heading out to set their traps this morning, a week later than scheduled. We hope to enjoy our tradition of lobster, if not Sunday, then next weekend.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers! Whether the roses are red or white, you are always in our minds and hearts.