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A Special Tribute to the Loving Moms in the World

Mother's Day

     Mother's Day is a special day for women and celebrated on the second Sunday of May in the United States. The change of date could vary from country to country maybe due to the history as well as religion that is observed. Even if those celebrated dates may vary in every country, most of us commemorate or remember it as a very special day of motherhood. 

      Mother's Day is a special day intended to celebrate the special love of a mother to her child and or children. Many churches as well as families in the US recognize the second (2nd) Sunday in May as Mother's Day to honor mothers, stepmothers, foster moms, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. People try to also honor on this "day of motherhood" the women who are their "mother figures" and they also include those sisters or aunts who become the mom figures in their family since they have to carry the duties and responsibilities of a being the mother. 

     The tradition upon honoring "mothers" dates back a long time ago to Ancient Greek since they had these great festivities or festivals specially dedicated to the Mother Goddess "Rhea" and the story of celebrating mother's day is derived from it. In those olden times, people made and celebrated the magnificent festival called "Hilaria" in honor of the "goddess of spring" named Rhea, who was also called the mother of the Gods. 

     "Hilaria" was generally celebrated within three (3) days of fun games, food, and entertainment such as dancing and parades. Rhea was the daughter of Gaia and she was also the mother of many children in the Greek Pantheon. One of her children was the famous Zeus. Rhea was a Titan and known to be the Goddess of time. Her name meant Flow and Ease and her calming essence was known to relieve the suffering as well as the chaos in the world.

     Rhea was the wife of Kronos based in ancient Greek. She was not only known to be the goddess of time but she did represent the eternal flow of time and the generations including the power power of ancestral blessings. Since women have menstrual cycle, this menstrual blood was indeed sacred to Rhea. She was known to have the power of feminine fertility and that particular Flow represented the "life blood", "birth water", as well as "nourishing milk" being the great mother of all.

     The feast continued and had started to become more religious in the later years particularly in the 1600's. In those days people have tried celebrating it on the fourth Sunday after Easter. People who were working a bit far from their loved ones and families were even able to enjoy "a free day" to go home, and be with their moms or mothers on this special day. For many years, many people had started to celebrate Mother's Day on the same day. 

     Today, Mother's Day is a special day or feast celebrated all over the world. Since we have the very active and popular social media in the modern times, some of us have joined in advance in one of these websites that offer great deals, discounts, coupons and deals and is also catered in celebrating this wonderful and happy day. We can now easily greet our loved ones especially our moms, sisters, aunts, grannies, great grandmothers by just sending a quick note, ecard or email via a click of a button or simply by touching any modern electronic gadget.

     If we go back again to the olden days here in the USA, Mother's Day was first celebrated in Boston dated back in the year 1872 by Julia Ward Howe as what some people had written about it. She then suggested that people could observe this day on June 2 as a day dedicated to peace and this was the first known suggestion of Mother's Day in the United States. Julia Ward Howe wanted Mother's Day to be celebrated every year under her sponsorship and it did continue to be held in Boston for about ten years.

     According to some history writers, they believed that the origins of Mother's Day were attributed to different people but many believed that the two women, namely as first mentioned in this article Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis were the two important ladies in establishing the said tradition of Mother's Day here in the United States. Some people believed that Juliet Calhoun Blakely had also initiated Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, around in the late 1800's. It was also known by some people that her sons had paid tribute and homage to her every year and encouraged others to honor their mother.

     In 1907, Anna M. Jarvis held a private Mother's Day celebration in memory of her late mother, Ann Jarvis, in Grafton, West Virginia and she also tried to make this special day a "national holiday". She really wanted this day to be placed on the second Sunday of May, and later succeeded in 1914 when Woodrow Wilson won and became the President of the United States. Mother's Day then became a national holiday.

     Ann Jarvis became busy and had organized clubs known as "Mother's Day Work Clubs" in order to improve the health and cleanliness in the surrounding area where she lived. She tried as much as she could for Mother's Day to be more widely acknowledged and accepted. She began a campaign for a nationwide observance of Mother's Day in 1908. 

     Ann's hard work on her quest and campaign was financially supported by a clothing merchant from Philadelphia named John Wanamaker. She chose the 2nd Sunday in May and had started the custom of wearing a carnation. The color has significance to the one using it since a white carnation signified that his or her mother had already passed away but if someone used a colored carnation, it meant that the mother was still alive. 

     In that same year of 1908, Ann was also of great help in arranging a service in the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, which was attended by four hundred seven children including their mothers. This church has become the International Mother's Day Shrine and a "tribute" to all mothers has been designated as a National Historic Landmark.

     Many believed that a long time ago, Mary Towles Sasseen, Frank E. Hering, and Anna Jarvis were the ladies who had greatly campaigned for a Mother's Day around the US. President Woodrow Wilson then signed a joint resolution of Congress and had recommended that Congress and the Executive Branch of government recognized the special observance of Mother's Day in the year 1914.

     In the United States (US), Mother's Day is celebrated and annually held on the second Sunday in May while in the United Kingdom (UK), mothers are honored on the fourth Sunday of Lent in March. England have observed a day to honor mothers in mid-Lent that was known as "Mothering Sunday" that had started many years ago too.

    Taking the time to visit your mom, stepmother, foster mother, grandmother, or great-grandmother would be truly special while others may simply send a gift package or card. It is really the "thought" that counts as what many people believe. The most expected Mother's Day gifts could be flowers, jewelry, chocolate, clothing, and beauty treats. Other close-knit families will organize in advance a very special meal in a good restaurant while others who have enough time to prepare will celebrate it at home with all the food that they really like to cook. 

     The importance of Mother's Day is to celebrate motherhood and the special time to appreciate a mother's love for her loved ones. This does not necessarily mean that you need to bear a child or children to celebrate this precious and memorable occasion. Mother figures can be women who fostered a child or children and have given them the motherly love and support that they needed in their everyday struggles and successes in life. We should love and respect the women in our lives who had nurtured and sacrificed for us.

     Mother's Day is not considered a federal holiday and some organizations, businesses and stores are open while others closed. Some teachers in schools already tell their pupils or students in advance to prepare those unique and beautiful handmade cards for their moms. Public transit systems on this day such as buses and trains operate just normal on its Sunday schedule. Local business flights would be busier than ever since many will travel and see their moms, step mothers, foster mothers, grannies, or great-grandmothers. 

     On this special day, many people give variety of gifts to the special moms or mothers of their lives such as purses, jewelry, colognes, a good meal in a restaurant or other wonderful treats. People are now starting to look for great deals, discounts, coupons and sales from the brick-and-mortar stores including the ones online. Mother's Day has also helped the economy since many people would go to restaurants and take their wives and or mothers out for a treat then celebrate this special day while others buy gift items.