Flowering Sunday

Photos of Newport event in 1888

Flowering Sunday in Wales — known in Church circles as Palm Sunday and as Blossom Sunday in England — saw the custom of decorating graves with flowers. An account of the 1888 event in Newport recorded that the display at the New Cemetery was not as great as in former years:

“Neither was the attendance of visitors so numerous, doubtless being attributable to the unfavourable state of the weather. Some had taken the precaution to have the flowers there on Saturday night, and of course, in consequence of the subsequent snowfall, they were entirely obscured from view by the ‘white mantle’ on Sunday morning.

Due to the rowdyism usually prevailing in the Cemetery on Flowering Sunday, there was yesterday, a strong force of police on duty there, and of course, the presence of this largely had the effect of preserving order, decorum and better conduct that has unfortunately hitherto been the rule.”

The two postcards reproduced below are postmarked Cardiff [April 1907] and addressed to Mrs S Jones of Crosby near Liverpool. Thanks to the writer, they can be identified as having been taken on Flowering Sunday.

The first records:

This is the grave that I had the photo of to give you an Idea of how the graves are done on Flowering Sunday. All natural flowers.

The second states:

This is another one belonging to Mrs Studxx [illegible] who owns the pound about in S. Wales. The flowers in this must cost a lot of money every year, for it is done up beautifully.

Photographs from Authors Collection