

In Wales, 'Flower Sunday' - Sul y Blodau - is age old tradition continued by families across the country to honour their ancestors, by cleaning and decorating their graves.
Written for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025, by Rev.d Gethin Rhys, Churches Together in Wales.
The Culture of Dying Matters in Wales: Sul y Blodau
Many cultures have a tradition of families cleaning and decorating the graves of their ancestors. Christian cultures might associate the placing of flowers on graves especially with Easter or Whit Sunday (Pentecost), which in the northern hemisphere are spring festivals of new life.
In Wales there is a distinctive tradition of cleaning and decorating graves on the Sunday before Easter, Palm Sunday – known in Welsh as ‘Sul y Blodau’ (Flower Sunday). The Biblical accounts of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday contain no reference to flowers – and for many Christians, there are no flowers inside church buildings during Lent, until Easter Eve. But in Wales, graveyards will be full of flowers from Palm Sunday and throughout Holy Week – the week when Christians remember the final days and crucifixion of Jesus.
These flowers are, therefore, not just signs of new life in spring and at Easter. They are also signs of the continuing grieving of this generation for past generations, and the flowers lie on the graves for all to see while Christians remember the tensions and horror that Jesus faced, and the grief that his family and followers endured, during his final week on earth.
This tradition goes back centuries, and is still passed on from generation to generation today. In advance of Palm Sunday, families travel many miles across Wales – or return to Wales from elsewhere - to clean and tidy the graves of their ancestors. These ancestors may have died before the current generation was born, but their memories are still cherished. In 2020, the Covid lockdown just prior to Palm Sunday prevented many families travelling, and this added to the grief of that strange period.
At one time, the graves were whitewashed, but now weeding and cleaning will suffice. Traditionally, wild flowers were picked on the journey, but today they will come from gardens or florists. But still fresh flowers are placed on the newly cleaned graves, in the hope of good weather between Palm Sunday and Easter Day so that they will last to welcome the good news of resurrection too.
This ritual, that enables us to grieve annually in accordance with the cycle of the Christian year, runs deep – and extends beyond practising Christians. The sight of graveyards full of flowers marks the respect of the living for the dead, the hope of new life and for future generations, and the Christian belief that the joy of resurrection on Easter Day can come only after the grief of Holy Week and Good Friday.

Sul y Blodau yng Nghymru
Mae’r hanesion Beiblaidd am Iesu’n marchogaeth i mewn i Jerwsalem ar gychwyn yr Wythnos Fawr yn sôn am osod dail palmwydd o’i flaen – ond nid oes unrhyw gyfeiriad at flodau. I lawer o Gristnogion, nid oes blodau y tu mewn i’w haddoldai yn ystod y Grawys, tan Noswyl y Pasg. Ond yng Nghymru, ‘Sul y Blodau’ yw’r Sul cyn y Pasg, y Sul mae gwledydd eraill yn ei galw yn ‘Sul y Palmwydd’. Bydd mynwentydd Cymru yn gyforiog o flodau o Sul y Blodau trwy gydol yr Wythnos Fawr – yr wythnos pan fydd Cristnogion yn cofio dyddiau olaf a chroeshoelio Iesu.
Mae gan lawer o ddiwylliannau draddodiad o deuluoedd yn glanhau ac addurno beddau eu cyndeidiau. Tuedd diwylliannau Cristnogol yw cysylltu gosod blodau ar feddau yn arbennig gyda'r Pasg neu’r Sulgwyn (Pentecost), gwyliau Cristnogol sydd hefyd yn dathlu bywyd newydd y gwanwyn yn hemisffer y gogledd.
Fodd bynnag, yng Nghymru y traddodiad yw glanhau ac addurno beddau ar Sul y Blodau. Nid yw'r blodau hyn, felly, yn arwyddion o fywyd newydd y gwanwyn a'r Pasg yn unig. Maent hefyd yn arwyddo’r galar sy’n parhau heddiw am genedlaethau’r gorffennol. Mae’r blodau’n gorwedd ar y beddau i bawb eu gweld tra bod Cristnogion yn cofio’r tensiynau a’r arswyd a wynebodd Iesu, a’r galar a ddioddefodd ei deulu a’i ddilynwyr, yn ystod ei wythnos olaf ar y ddaear.
Mae'r traddodiad hwn yn dyddio yn ôl ganrifoedd, ac o hyd yn cael ei drosglwyddo o genhedlaeth i genhedlaeth. Erbyn Sul y Blodau, mae teuluoedd yn teithio milltiroedd lawer ar draws Cymru – neu’n dychwelyd i Gymru o fannau eraill – i lanhau a thacluso beddau eu hynafiaid. Fe all fod y cyndeidiau hyn wedi marw cyn i’r genhedlaeth bresennol gael ei geni, ond y mae’r cof amdanynt yn fyw. Yn 2020, cyhoeddwyd cyfnod clo Covid yn fuan cyn Sul y Blodau, gan atal teuluoedd rhag teithio, ac ychwanegu at alar y cyfnod dwys hwnnw.
Ar un adeg, byddai’r beddau yn cael eu gwyngalchu, ond erbyn hyn bydd chwynnu a glanhau yn ddigon. Yn draddodiadol, codwyd blodau gwyllt ar y daith, ond heddiw dônt o erddi neu siop flodau. Ond o hyd fe osodir blodau ffres ar y beddau glân, yn y gobaith o dywydd da rhwng Sul y Blodau a Sul y Pasg fel y byddant yn dal yno i groesawu newyddion da’r atgyfodiad hefyd.
Mae’r ddefod hon sy’n ein galluogi i alaru’n flynyddol, yn unol â chylch y flwyddyn Gristnogol, yn ddwfn ynom – ac yn ymestyn y tu hwnt i Gristnogion pybyr. Mae gweld mynwentydd llawn blodau yn nodi coffa da’r byw o’r meirw, gobaith am fywyd newydd ac am genedlaethau’r dyfodol, a’r gred Gristnogol mai dim ond ar ôl galar yr Wythnos Fawr a Gwener y Groglith y cawn lawenydd yr atgyfodiad ar Sul y Pasg.
Lluniau: Teulu yn parhau â thraddodiad Sul y Blodau trwy lanhau beddau’r teulu a gosod blodau ym mynwent eglwys Santes Mair Madlen, Mawdlam, ger Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr.
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