The very same woman who strived for Mother’s Day to be celebrated, spent the last years of her unmarried and childless life trying to abolish the day she had brought into being – in protest against its commercialisation.
A single white carnation as a tribute to one’s mother, and the word “Mother’s” a singular possessive for each family to honor its own mother, was the clear intention of founder Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia.
It started on 12 May 1907, when Jarvis held a memorial service at her late mother’s church in West Virginia to honor her mother, Ann.
Ann was a social activist who organised women’s groups to promote friendship and health during the American Civil War era.
Within five years every state in America was observing the day, and in 1914 Pres. Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
The celebration of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele.
“Mothering Sunday” was celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was seen as a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church” for a special service.
These customs have faded, with some merging with the popular Mother’s Day.
The day soon became associated with cards and gifts.
Now apparently more phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than on any other day of the year. Apparently it is also the busiest day of the year for restaurants and the third busiest for florists.
Whether a supporter of it or not, this day is once again celebrated on Sunday (08/05).
The best any mother can get on this day, is not in stock in any shop or on any menu.
That is the wisdom to raise children to have respect. For oneself, for others, the community, animals, the environment . . .
If this were on sale, each day could have been as good as a holiday – or a Mother’s Day.
