Mother's Day Memories

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Mother's Day - the day to honor your mother. Being of a curious nature, I went looking for the origins of this day and here's what Wikipedia had to tell me -

Different countries celebrate Mother's Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins.

One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods. This festival was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the (15 March) to 18 March. The ancient Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day.Mothering Sunday, also called "Mothers' Day" in the United Kingdom and Ireland falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent (exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday). It is believed to have originated from the 16th century Christian practice of visiting one's mother church annually, which meant that most mothers would be reunited with their children on this day.

The United States celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war.

When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May 1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Originally the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, this building is now the International Mother's Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark). From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.

Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become. Mother's Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.

Wow! Talk about transformation.

Anyway, getting back on track - I'm supposed to be writing about my favorite Mother's Day memory. Well, that would have to be last year's Mother Day. Which was also my very first Mother's Day! I'd been a Mommy only a few scant months, but I was (and still am :-) enjoying it. I was also overjoyed that for that first time I'd be getting a Mother's Day card, instead of just giving one.

But what made it really Really special was my own Mother's presence at my home, by my side on that day. She and my Dad came to see my newborn son and we celebrated Mother's Day together, Mommy and Daughter, together with Mommy and Son. She gave me tips on baby care, made me almost regain my pregnancy weight by stuffing me full of fantastic food, fussed over my hubby and baby, and in general, brought warmth, happiness, organization and comfort to our chaotic little household.

We celebrated Mother's Day together and it was the first time we'd been able to do that in ten years. It was just MAGICAL! And I'm so thankful for that.

Thanks to From Dates to Diapers and Mommies United for having this great Mother's Day contest that took me on this nostalgic trip down memory lane.

And now I'm off to call my Mother. Pip-Pip, Cheerio and all that (see previous post).



Treat me to a Starbucks, so I can stay up late blogging my heart out!


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