As the world honoured mothers on Mother’s Day yesterday, so did the royal couple with their royal baby in their new role as royal parents in the UK.
But first, before going further ─ here’s a quick history lesson about this special day.
Mother’s Day Factoid
Did you know that Mother’s Day is an all-American commemoration? The celebration was founded by American Anna Jarvis when she first held a memorial to honour her mother in West Virginia in 1908. She was also the one who made it into an internationally recognised celebration. Mother’s Day is today observed across 40-plus countries around the globe. Surprisingly, it is not celebrated in the UK where another version of the celebration is observed instead. Called Mothering Sunday, the English celebrate it three weeks before Easter Sunday every March. This has been the tradition since the 16th Century.
So in a fitting reflection of the US commemoration of the day ─ Meghan Markle of American bi-racial descent who married across borders into British monarchy and becoming a brand new mother to royal baby Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor ─ gives symbolism to the love and unity that has been forged across racial and international lines.
The commemorative photo release from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially called) on their Sussex Instagram page was therefore more than apt. It was also tender, protective (of Archie’s privacy) and poignant as it declared a touching tribute to the baby’s paternal grandmother, Princess Diana.
Showing just baby Archie’s tiny feet wrapped in the white shawl he was first shown in after leaving the hospital, and cradled by Meghan’s hand, the Mother’s Day post released on Sunday had a line that read ─ “This is the first Mother’s Day for The Duchess of Sussex”. But what lays in the background is most telling. A milieu of blue forget-me-nots grace the backdrop. Forget-me-nots were the favourite flowers of Princess Diana who died in 1997.
Prince Harry has always missed his mother and those flowers have special significance in his heart. At his wedding to Meghan last year, her wedding bouquet included forget-me-nots. Kensington Palace said in a statement at the time that the couple specifically chose those flowers to honour the memory of the late Princess.
Prince Harry says he ‘Misses Mum’ after Birth of Baby Archie
According to Vanity Fair, those forget-me-nots in the wedding bouquet were laid on the grave of an Unknown Warrior inside Westminster Abbey in London after the wedding ceremony.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have since moved away from Kensington Palace in London to be on their own. It is said the picture was taken in the grounds of their new home in Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.
The world waited with bated breath as baby Archie was born on Monday, May 6, 2019. He weighed 7lbs 3oz.
Forget-Me-Not
