Mother’s Day

Mother’s day is a holiday that is celebrated and observed all over the world. In the United States, Mother’s day is celebrated on Sunday the 8^th of May of this year. The American creation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and would later become an official holiday in 1914. Anna Jarvis was a social activist and when her mother stated that she had wondered why there was not a date to celebrate motherhood, it gave Anna the idea to create the day after her mother’s passing to honor her. Anna would later denounce the date because she believed the day became too commercialized for her liking. She spent the latter years of her life trying to remove the date from the calendar but unfortunately passed before she could succeed in that regard.

Celebrations of mothers and motherhood though can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. They would hold festivals to honor the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele. The most modern history that shows motherhood being celebrated was by Christians who had a festival called “Mothering Sunday.”

It was a tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe where a celebration would fall on the fourth Sunday of Lent and would be seen as a time when those who celebrated the faith would return to the “mother church” for this special service.

On the second Sunday in May, America celebrates Mother’s Day. The celebration usually includes generations coming together to celebrate the love that mothers have for their children. It could also be a celebration for single fathers who take care of their children on their own. Sending cards and presents to your loved ones on this day is to celebrate caring for one another, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be a biological mother or even a female at all, it just means that you have taken care of a child for the purpose of loving them and nurturing them. Not every family is perfect and not every mother is perfect either, so whoever grew up taking care of you and your siblings can also be celebrated on this day.

Even though mother’s day (the modern concept) was regretted by the originator because of its overly commercial elements. That is not what Mother’s Day is supposed to be about anyways. Making something for them or taking your loved one out to eat for the day is just as caring as buying them a gift. Maybe Anna Jarvis was right that the holiday has become too commercialized, but isn’t that true for any holiday these days? To care and to love for those that nurtured and took care of you growing up should be enough for them. Here is to all the mothers, fathers, and loved ones out there who have ever taken care of and have had love for a child. Cheers!