Today is Mother\u2019s Day \u2014 a day we celebrate every year on the second Sunday of May. For the last couple of years, I\u2019ve kind of passed over Mother\u2019s Day on these pages, so this year I think it deserves a little more discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cMother\u2019s Day\u201d that we celebrate is a relatively recent occurrence \u2014 having only been celebrated since 1908. But similar activities or festivals have been around for many years. In Greek mythology spring festivals were held in honor of Rhea, the goddess of fertility, motherhood and generation. She was the wife of Cronus and was believed to be the mother of many deities.\u00a0
The ancient Romans celebrated a spring festival called Hilaria \u2014 dedicated to a mother goddess named Cybele. Her followers made offerings at the temple, held parades, and played games. The festival lasted three days.
In India, people celebrate Durga-puja, a festival that pays homage to the mother goddess, Durga. The festival is a ten-day event that takes place in the fall.
In England in the 1600\u2019s, Mothering Sunday took place on the 4th Sunday of Lent. It began with a prayer service in honor of the Virgin Mary. Afterwards, children would present their moms with flowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1870, Julia Ward, who wrote the \u201cBattle Hymn of the Republic,\u201d suggested a day of peace and strongly advocated other women to stand up against war. She was able to get Boston to recognize mothers on the second Sunday of June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The modern day \u201cMother\u2019s Day\u201d movement began during the Civil War \u2014 Ann Jarvis championed a cause to foster friendship and community between the mothers of both the North and the South. She started a committee which established the first glimmer of today\u2019s day \u2014 \u201cMother\u2019s Friendship Day.\u201d
Ann Jarvis\u2019s daughter sought to honor her own mother by establishing an intimate day of observance that led to today\u2019s holiday. She created the Mother\u2019s Day International Association and advocated a mother\u2019s day observance the second Sunday in May. Woodrow Wilson legitimized the celebration as a nationwide holiday.\u00a0
Unfortunately, the holiday quickly became a commercialized opportunity for merchants to sell flowers, candy and cards. Jarvis\u2019s daughter thought this was detracting from the personal and intimate aspects of the holiday and fought against such commercialization. She eventually used all her money is her fight and died at the age of 84 in a sanatorium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, Mother\u2019s Day, like everything else, will be a little different\u2026 according to my extensive research, in 2018 about 87 million adults made plans to go to a restaurant for Mother\u2019s Day. Maybe there\u2019ll be 87 million \u201ccarry-outs\u201d today.\u00a0
One statistic we always hear is that more phone calls are made on Mother\u2019s Day than any other day \u2014 the last data I could find indicated that about 122 million calls were made on the second Sunday of May. Of course you can still call, but I imagine a lot of those calls have turned into \u201ctexts.\u201d Probably the most important things for mothers is to just hear from their children \u2014 maybe they\u2019d prefer a call, but I\u2019m sure texts work, too.
Supposedly the first thing a baby can vocalize is the \u2018ma\u2019 sound, which may be why in almost every language the word for mother begins with the letter \u2018M\u2019 or is some iteration of the \u2018ma\u2019 sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though mothers deserve to be honored every day, it\u2019s nice to set aside a special day for them, so no matter what you call it, or what day it\u2019s celebrated, the purpose is the same, a special recognition and appreciation day for our moms.
Happy Mother\u2019s Day to Claire, Kelly and Chassie \u2014 the best three Moms I know.
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Today is Mother\u2019s Day \u2014 a day we celebrate every year on the second Sunday of May. For the last couple of years, I\u2019ve kind of passed over Mother\u2019s Day on these pages, so this year I think it deserves … Continue reading