History of Mother's Day

History of Mother's Day

Published On: 11-11-2011 01:42pm

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Mother's Day is just around the corner.Â  How can we thank the Woman who will do anything for us, support us, cheer us up, remind us how wonderful we are, while at the same time urging us to be our best?Â  Well, regardless if you have a down to earth mom, a fashion diva mom, outdoorsy mom, sophisticated, exotic, funky, etc. your mom will always love something from your heart.

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I researched the history of Mother's Day and thought you would be interested in how it came about and what other countries might do.Â  While you are here, don't forget to check out the shop to find a really great, unique, and one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry that your mom will love and wear all the time.

The modern Mother's Day is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in March, April, or May as a day to honor mothers and motherhood. Â Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday. The ancient Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day.



In Europe there were several long standing traditions where a specific Sunday was set aside to honor motherhood and mothers such as Mothering Sunday. Mothering Sunday celebrations are part of the liturgical calendar in several Christian denominations, including Anglicans, and in the Catholic calendar is marked as Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent to honor the Virgin Mary and your "mother" church. Children and young people who were "in service" (servants in richer households) were given a day off on that date so they could visit their families or, originally, return to their "mother" church. The children would pick wild flowers along the way to place them in the church or to give them to their mothers as gifts.


Here are a few countries and how they celebrate:

Arab World
Mother's Day in most of Arab countries is celebrated on March 21. It was introduced in Egypt by journalist Mustafa Amin in his book (Smiling America) 1943. The idea was overlooked at the time, but when Amin heard the story of a widowed mother who devoted her whole life to raise her son until he became a doctor, got married and left without showing her any gratitude, Amin became motivated to promote for "Mother's Day". The idea was first ridiculed by president Gamal Abdel Nasser but he eventually accepted it and Mother's Day was first celebrated on the 21st of March 1956. The practice has since been copied by the other Arab countries.


In China, Mother's Day is becoming more popular, and carnations are a very popular gift and the most sold type of flower. In 1997 it was set as the day to help poor mothers, especially to remind people of the poor mothers in rural areas such as China's western region. In the People's Daily, the Chinese government's official newspaper, an article explained that "despite originating in the United States, people in China take the holiday with no hesitance because it goes in line with the country's traditional ethics â€“ respect to the elderly and filial piety to parents."

Mother's Day in Japan was initially commemorated during the ShMwa period as the birthday of Empress KMjun (mother of Emperor Akihito) on 6 March. This was established in 1931 when Imperial Women's Union was organised. In 1937, the first meeting of "Praise Mothers" was held on 8 May, and in around 1949 Japanese society adapted to celebrate Mother's day on the second Sunday of May, the same as many other countries. Nowadays it is rather a marketed holiday, and people typically give flowers such as red carnations and roses as gifts.

The government of Ãlvaro ObregÃ³n imported the holiday from the US in 1922, with the newspaper ExcÃ©lsior making a massive promotion campaign that year. In the mid-1930s the government of LÃ¡zaro CÃ¡rdenas promoted the holiday as a "patriotic festival". The CÃ¡rdenas government tried to use the holiday as a vehicle for various efforts: stressing the importance of families for national development, benefiting from the loyalty that Mexicans had towards their mothers, introducing new morals to Mexican women and reducing the influence that the church and the Catholic right had on them. Soledad Orozco GarcÃ­a, the wife of President Manuel Ãvila Camacho, promoted the holiday during the 1940s, making it into an important state-sponsored celebration. The 1942 celebration lasted a whole week, including an announcement that all women could reclaim their pawned sewing machines from the Monte de Piedad at no cost. Nowadays the holiday in Mexico is a celebration of both mothers and the Virgin Mary held each year on May 10.Â 

Happy Mother's Day!




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