Mother's Day
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- Duration: 2:09
- Published: 2006-04-19
- Uploaded: 2011-01-10
- Author: BaratsAndBereta
www.baratsandbereta.com A digital Mother's Day card. Tucker and Brad show their love for mom by taking a Mother's Day photo...
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| Holiday name | Mother's Day |
|---|---|
| Caption | A homemade cake, one of many ways a family might celebrate Mother's Day, or Mothering Sunday |
| Observedby | Many countries |
| Date | Varies regionally |
| Type | Commercial |
| Relatedto | Father's Day, Parents' Day, Children's Day |
The modern Mother's Day is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in May, March, or April as a day to honor mothers and motherhood. In the UK and Ireland, it follows the old traditions of Mothering Sunday, celebrated in March/April.
Father's Day is the corresponding day for the father.
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 honour the Virgin Mary and your "mother" church (the main church of the area). 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.
One of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States was the "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe. Written in 1870, it was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.
International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time in 28 February 1909, in the US, by which time Anna Jarvis had already begun her national campaign in the US. It is now celebrated in many countries on March 8.
This is also the spelling used by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in the law making official the holiday in the U.S., by the U.S. Congress on bills, and by other U.S. presidents on their declarations.
Common usage in English language also dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive "Mother's Day" is the preferred spelling, although "Mothers' Day" (plural possessive) is not unheard of.
Some countries already had existing celebrations honoring motherhood, and their celebrations have adopted several external characteristics from the US holiday, like giving carnations and other presents to your own mother.
The extent of the celebrations varies greatly. In some countries, it is potentially offensive to one's mother not to mark Mother's Day. In others, it is a little-known festival celebrated mainly by immigrants, or covered by the media as a taste of foreign culture (compare the celebrations of Diwali in the UK and the United States).
In Hindu tradition it is called "Mata Tirtha Aunshi" or "Mother Pilgrimage fortnight", and it is celebrated in countries with Hindu population, especially in Nepal. It is celebrated on the new moon day in the month of Baisakh i.e. April/May. This holiday is based in Hindu religion and it pre-dates the creation of the Western-inspired holiday by at least a few centuries.
Islamic scholars have published fatwas against dedicating a single day to honor mothers, which detracts from honoring them year round.
The tradition of gift giving to mothers on Mother's Day was started in Australia by Mrs Janet Heyden , a resident of Leichhardt Sydney, in 1924. She began the tradition during a visit to a patient at the Newington State Home for woman, where she met many lonely and fogotten mothers. To cheer them up, she rounded up support from local school children and businesses to donate and bring gifts to the women. Every year thereafter, more support was raised by Janet with local businesses and even the local Mayor. It didn't take long for the day to become commercialised as it is to this day.
The first Mother's Day in the country was promoted by Associação Cristã de Moços de Porto Alegre (Young Men's Christian Association of Porto Alegre), on May 12, 1918. In 1932, the then-President Getulio Vargas made official the date on the second Sunday of May. In 1947, Archbishop Jaime de Barros Chamber, Cardinal-Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, determined that this date was also included in the official calendar of the Catholic Church.
It's considerated an unofficial holiday (see Public holidays in Brazil).
Much like St. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Father's Day and Halloween that are traditionally observed in Canada, The Mother's Day holiday, in almost all features, is identical to the US version of Mother's Day.
Mother's Day in Canada is celebrated on the second Sunday in May.
The government started issuing in 1938, an award called Mother's Cross (Mutterkreuz), with different categories depending on the number of children. The cross intended to encouraging having more children, and recipients had to have at least 4 children. For example, a gold cross recipient (a level one) had to have eight children or more. Since having fewer children was a recent development, the gold cross was awarded mostly to elderly mothers with grown children. It promoted loyalty among German women and it was a popular award even if it had little material awards and it was mostly empty praise. The recipients of honors had to be examined by doctors and social workers according to genetic and racial values that were considered beneficial to the volk. The friends and family were also examined for possible flaws that could disqualify them, and they had to be racially and morally fit. They had to be "German-blooded", "genetically healthy", "worthy", "politically reliable", and they couldn't have vices like drinking. Criteria against honors were, for example, "family history contains inferior blood", "unfemenine" behaviour like smoking or doing poor housekeeping, not being "politically reliable", or having family members that had been "indicted and imprisoned". There were instances where a family was disqualified because a doctor saw signs of "feeblemindedness." Even contact with a Jew could disqualify a potential recipient. Social workers had become disillusioned from the Weimar Republic and supported Nazi ideas personally as a means to "cure" the problems of the country. Application of policies was uneven, as doctors promoted medical criteria over racial criteria, and local authorities promoted economical need over any other criteria.
The holiday is now celebrated in the second Sunday of May, in a manner similar to other nearby European countries.
The festival of Pâthâre Prabhu is celebrated on the same day only in Bombay and the Southern part of India (concretely Konkan and the districts below the Western Ghats). The Pathare prabhu caste always celebrates this holiday.It is based on a legend about a mother whose children kept dying after only one year of living and it has a very remote origin. Although it's also called "Mother's Day", it is unrelated to the modern celebration, which is copied from the US (second Sunday of May) and is celebrated in the whole country.
The idea to make the day official was started during the third Indonesian Women Congress in 1938. It was signed by president Soekarno under the Presidential Decree () no. 316 year 1959. The day was originally aimed to celebrate the spirit of Indonesian women and to improve the condition of the nation. Today, Mother's Day is celebrated by expressing love and gratitude to mothers. People present gifts to mothers, such as flowers, hold surprise parties and competitions such as cooking competition or kebaya wearing competition. People also allow mothers to have their day off from doing domestic chores.
Israeli Arabs (about 20% of the population) celebrate Mother's Day on 21 March, similar to other Arab countries.
The government of Álvaro Obregón imported the holiday from the US in 1922, with the newspaper Excélsior making a massive promotion campaign that year. The conservative government tried to use the holiday to promote a more conservative role for mothers in families, which was criticized by the socialists as promoting an unrealistic image of a woman who wasn't good for much more than breeding.
Soledad Orozco García, the wife of President Manuel Ávila Camacho, promoted the holiday during the 1940s, making it into an important state-sponsored celebration.
The catholic National Synarchist Union (UNS) started paying attention to the holiday around 1941, due to Orozco's promotion. The members of the Party of the Mexican Revolution (nowadays PRI) that owned shops had a custom where women from humble classes could go to their shop in mother's day, pick a gift for free, and bring it home to their families. The Synarchists worried that this promoted both materialism and the idleness of lower classes, and in turn reinforced the systemic social problematics of the country. While nowadays we see those holiday practices as very conservative, the 1940s' UNS was viewing the holiday as a part of the larger debate on modernization that was happening at the time.
Also, the UNS and the clergy of the city of León saw in the government actions an effort to secularize the holiday and to promote a more active role of women in society, with the long term goal of weakening men spiritually when women abandoned their traditional roles at home.
There is a consensus among scholars that the Mexican government abandoned its revolutionary initiaves during the 1940s, including efforts to influence Mother's Day. Nowadays the holiday in Mexico is a celebration of both mothers and the Virgin Mary.
Nowadays the "Día de las Madres" is an unofficial holiday in Mexico held each year on May 10.
There is a legend regarding this pilgrimage. In ancient times Lord Krishna’s mother Devaki walked out her house to sight-see. She visited many places and delayed a lot to return back at her house. Lord Krishna became very unhappy because of his mother’s disappearance. So he went out in search of his mother to many places without success. Finally, when he reached "Mata Tirtha Kunda", he happened to see his mother taking bath there in the spouts of that pond. Lord Krishna was very happy to find her there and narrated all of his tragedies in the absence of his mother. Mother Devaki said to lord Krishna that "oh! Son Krishna let then, this place be the pious rendezvous of children to meet their departed mothers". So legends believe that since then this place had become a noted holy pilgrimage to see back a devotees’ deceased mother. Also legend believes that a devotee saw his mother’s image inside the pond and he happened to die falling there down. So still there is a small pond fenced by the iron rods in the place even on this present day as well. After the worship the pilgrimage enjoy there singing and dancing throughout the day in the festive mood. There is not evidence of happening of this legend as these are coming from elders based on ancient readings.
According to other account, the Rotary Club of Panama asked in 1924 that Mother's Day be celebrated on May 11 to honor mothers, but a politician called Aníbal D. Ríos changed the proposal, so that it would be held on December 8, and he made it into a national holiday.
In 2008 the Paraguayan Minister of Culture, Bruno Barrios, lamented this coincidence because Mother's Day is so much more popular in comparison that the independence celebration goes unnoticed; he asked that the celebration was moved to the end of the month. The Comisión de festejos (Celebration Committee) of the city of Asunción asked in 2008 that Mother's Day was moved to the second Sunday of May.
By 1935 Mothering Sunday was less celebrated in Europe. Some traditions were revived, such as the tradition of eating cake on that day, although they now eat simnel cake instead of the cakes that were traditionally prepared at that time.
Mothering Sunday can fall at the earliest on 1 March (in years when Easter Day falls on 22 March) and at the latest on 4 April (when Easter Day falls on 25 April).
For example, according to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts—like spa treatments—and another $68 million on greeting cards.
Mother's Day will generate about 7.8% of the U.S. jewelry industry's annual revenue in 2008, with custom gifts like mother's rings.
It's possible that the holiday would have withered over time without the support and continuous promotion of the florist industries and other commercial industries. Other Protestant holidays from the same time, like Children's Day and Temperance Sunday, do not have the same level of popularity. Mother's Day is also prominent in the Sunday Funnies of the United States, being a rich source of humor concerning mothers, children and husbands ranging from sentimental to wry to caustic.
Category:Holidays in the Soviet Union Category:Holidays for the celebration of family members Category:Motherhood Category:May observances
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