Mother's Day History
Origin of Mother's Day goes back to the era of ancient Greek and Romans. But the roots of Mother's Day history can also be traced in UK where a Mothering Sunday was celebrated much before the festival saw the light of the day in US. However, the celebration of the festival as it is seen today is a recent phenomenon and not even a hundred years old. Thanks to the hard work of the pioneering women of their times, Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis that the day came into existence. Today the festival of Mothers day is celebrated across 46 countries (though on different dates) and is a hugely popular affair. Millions of people across the globe take the day as an opportunity to honor their mothers, thank them for their efforts in giving them life, raising them and being their constant support and well wisher.
Earliest History of Mothers Day
The earliest history of Mothers Day dates back to the ancient annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to maternal goddesses. The Greeks used the occasion to honor Rhea, wife of Cronus and the mother of many deities of Greek mythology.
Ancient Romans, too, celebrated a spring festival, called Hilaria dedicated to Cybele, a mother goddess. It may be noted that ceremonies in honour of Cybele began some 250 years before Christ was born. The celebration made on the Ides of March by making offerings in the temple of Cybele lasted for three days and included parades, games and masquerades. The celebrations were notorious enough that followers of Cybele were banished from Rome.
Early Christians celebrated a Mother's Day of sorts during the festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ. In England the holiday was expanded to include all mothers. It was then called Mothering Sunday.Mothers Day is celebrated in several country across the globe though the month and date on which Mother's Day is celebrated in different countries varies.
Most countries celebrate Mothers Day on second Sunday in the Month of May. This Mother's Day date was declared by US President Woodrow Wilson on May 8, 1914 when he signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. This US tradition of celebrating Mothers Day and paying tribute to mothers spread across several countries over the years and these countries too adopted second Sunday of May as Mother's Day. However, in many countries the way Mothers Day is celebrated varies and is quite different from the manner in which Mothers Day is celebrated in US. But what is more important than the date and fashion of celebration is the feeling behind the festival. The idea of celebrating Mother's Day the world over is to pay tribute to mothers for all their love and support and to make them feel special.
Today Mothers Day is celebrated in several countries including US, UK, India, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan and Belgium. People take the day as an opportunity to pay tribute to their mothers and thank them for all their love and support. The day has become hugely popular and in several countries phone lines witness maximum traffic. There is also a tradition of gifting flowers, cards and others gift to mothers on the Mothers Day. The festival has become commercialised to a great extent. Florists, card manufacturers and gift sellers see huge business potential in the day and make good money through a rigorous advertising campaign.
Mother's Day Date in Different Countries
United States: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Australia: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Belgium: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Brazil: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Canada: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Denmark: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Finland: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Germany: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Greece: Second Sunday in the month of May.
India: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Italy: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Japan: Second Sunday in the month of May.
New Zealand: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Singapore: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Turkey: Second Sunday in the month of May.
United Kingdom/England: Mother's Day is called Mothering Sunday and falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
France: First Sunday in June or last Sunday in May
Much of South America (as well as Mexico), Bahrain, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates: May 10
Mexico: - May 8
Albania: - March 8
Russia: - November 28
Poland: - May 26
Indonesia: - December 22
Egypt: - March 21
Norway: - February 13
Thailand: Birthday of Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara - August 12
Sweden: Last Sunday in May
Lebanon: First day of Spring
Norway: The second Sunday in February
Austria, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Taiwan, Hungary, Portugal, South Africa, Spain: First Sunday in May
Antwerp (Belgium), Costa Rica: Assumption day - August 15
Argentina: The Día de la Madre - The second or third Sunday in October
Mothers Day Quotes:-
A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. -Tenneva Jordan
Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,But only one mother the wide world over.-George Cooper
Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love. Mildred B. Vermont
The sweetest sounds to mortals givenAre heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.-William Goldsmith Brown
A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. Peter De Vries
If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam. Lord Langdale (Henry Bickersteth)
It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge. -Phyllis Diller
The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. -Rajneesh
Woman in the home has not yet lost her dignity, in spite of Mother's Day, with its offensive implication that our love needs an annual nudging, like our enthusiasm for the battle of Bunker Hill. -John Erskine
Women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's the men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one's likely to do anything about that. -Golda Meir
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. -Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895
When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. -Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own. -Aristotle
Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. -Marion C. Garretty, quoted in A Little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul
Mother - that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries. -T. DeWitt Talmage
A man's work is from sun to sun, but a mother's work is never done. -Author Unknown
A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. -Irish Proverb
The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men - from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms. -Oliver Wendell Holmes
God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers. -Jewish Proverb
Motherhood is pricedOf God, at price no man may dareTo lessen or misunderstand.-Helen Hunt Jackson
Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother. -Oprah Winfrey
You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back. -William D. Tammeus
Now that... my kids are grown, I understand how much work and love it takes to raise and to keep a family together. The example of your strength, devotion, and patience is now rippling through the generations. Thank you! -Forest Houtenschil
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