By S.Raymond Rajabalan
[monsoonJournal.com]
Mother’s Day is a holiday honouring mothers, celebrated on various days in many places around the world. This day is celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of May in the United States and Canada.
History
In the United States, Mother’s Day was copied from England by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War with a call to unite women against war. She wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation. In the UK, the day now simply celebrates motherhood and thanking mothers.Different countries celebrate Mother’s Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins.
Julia Ward Howe [May 27, 1819–October 17, 1910]
One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece. Mother worship — which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of gods, and (mythology), the wife of Cronus; was held around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself. The Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day.
In most countries, Mother’s Day is a new concept copied from western civilization.In many African countries, the idea of one Mother’s Day has its origins in copying the British concept, although there are many festivals and events celebrating mothers within the many diverse cultures on the African continent that have been there centuries before the colonials arrival.
US history
Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870, as a call for peace and disarmament. An excerpt follows:
From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace.
Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers’ Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.
When Jarvis died, 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 May10,1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Grafton is the home to the International Mother’s Day Shrine. From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by somes 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 honour of those mothers whose sons had died in war (with specific reference to The Great War, now known as World War I.
British history - Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday, commonly called “Mothers’ Day” in the United Kingdom, has no direct connection to the American practice. It 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. Most historians believe that young apprentices and young women in servitude were released by their masters that weekend in order to visit their families.As a result of secularization, it is now principally used to celebrate and give thanks for mothers, although it is still recognized in the historical sense by some churches, with attention paid to Mary the mother of Jesus as well as the traditional concept ‘mother church’.
Whatever, the origin of Mothers day it is a noble act to honour mothers not only on a specific day of the year but each and every day of the year.
A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Washington Irving