Flower Sunday, Wellesley’s oldest tradition, grew in response to the College’s first Sunday chapel sermon in September 1875, which was, by all accounts, a miserable failure.
The minister preached a fire and brimstone sermon that was not at all reassuring to the nervous new students. One of them wrote home: “I have struggled my very best to keep up my spirits, but I am so homesick. … I would endure anything to start home. The sermon this morning was exceedingly profound, and not at all calculated to comfort homesick girls … his text: ‘Thou hast hedged me about so that I cannot get out: thou hast surrounded me with hewn stone.’” The College’s founder, Henry Fowle Durant, was also dismayed by the sermon, and he decided that from then on, the text for the first sermon of every academic year would be “God is Love.” The chapel was filled with flowers, and only joyful hymns were selected. Durant himself gave the Flower Sunday sermon on occasion in subsequent years, including his famous address “The Spirit of the College,” given in 1877, in which he asserted, “The higher education of women is one of the great world battle-cries for freedom; for right against might.”
Flower Sunday grew to include the tradition of big and little sisters—now siblings—attending the service together, with “bigs” giving their “littles” flowers. The service is now interfaith, and includes performances by the Yanvalou Drum and Dance Ensemble and the Wellesley College Choir. For many decades, a “distinguished visiting clergyman,” as described in Wellesley College 1875–1975: A Century of Women, would give the sermon. But in recent years, students have spoken during the service.
At this year’s Flower Sunday, student speaker Katelynn Crespo ’26 (above) stressed the importance of finding joy amidst academic challenges and building meaningful relationships to serve as a support network. “Seek out those who remind you of home, who make you laugh even on your worst days, and who hold you accountable when you’re not living up to your potential. These are the bonds that will keep you afloat during your time here,” Crespo said. “These connections may not be immediate, and they might not be with the people you expect, but they will be invaluable.”
Henry Durant would surely have agreed.
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