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Mother's Day

This article is about several worldwide days celebrating motherhood.

Mother's Day

Observed by Many countries

Type Historical

Date Varies regionally

Related to Father's Day

Mother's Day is a day honoring mothers, celebrated on various days in many places around the world. It complements Father's Day, the celebration honoring fathers.

Contents

1 History

2 Mothering Sunday in Britain and Ireland

3 Mother's Day in the United States

4 Mother's Day in various parts of the world

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

[edit] History

A celebratory Mother's Day cookie cake.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 Ides of March (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.

In some countries Mother's Day began not as a celebration for individual mothers but rather for Christians.[citation needed]

[edit] Mothering Sunday in Britain and Ireland

Main article: Mothering Sunday

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. Most historians believe that young apprentices and young women in servitude were released by their masters that weekend in order to visit their families.[1] As a result of secularization, it is now principally used to celebrate and give thanks for mothers, although it is still recognised in the historical sense by some churches, with attention paid to Mary the mother of Jesus as well as the traditional concept 'Mother Church'.

Mothering Sunday can fall at earliest on March 1st (in years when Easter Day falls on March 22nd) and at latest on April 4th (when Easter Day falls on April 25th).

[edit] Mother's Day in the United States

Main article: Mother's Day (United States)

The United States celebrates 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. In 1870, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. 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 Appalachian 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. In parts of the United States it is customary to plant tomatoes outdoors after Mother's Day (and not before).

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.

[edit] Mother's Day in various parts of the world

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 arrived. In most of East Asia, Mother's Day is a heavily marketed and commercialized concept copied straight from Mother's Day in the USA.[citation needed]

Mother's Day is celebrated on different days throughout the world. Examining the trends in Google searches for the term "mother's day" shows two major blips, the smaller one on the fourth Sunday in Lent (it is also called ladies day and women's day), and the larger one on the second Sunday in May.[2]

Note: The definition used in the following table allows "Women's day" to be treated the same as "Mother's Day".

Mother's Day in various regions:

Day

Second Sunday in February Norway

Shevat 30 (falls anywhere between January 30 and March 1) Israel

March 3 Georgia

March 8 Afghanistan, Albania*, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,Laos, Macedonia*, Moldova*, Montenegro, Romania*, Russia*, Serbia, Ukraine South Korea. *In Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Guyana, Italy, Macedonia, Mongolia, and Russia it is observed as International Women's Day, not specifically Mothers' day.

Fourth Sunday in Lent (Mothering Sunday - March 2 in 2008) Ireland, Nigeria, United Kingdom

March 21 (vernal equinox) Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen (All Arab countries in general)

March 25 Slovenia

April 7 Armenia

Baisakh Amavasya (Mata Tirtha Aunsi) Nepal

First Sunday in May Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain

May 8 Albania (Parents' Day), South Korea(Parents' Day).

May 10 El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico

Second Sunday in May

Anguilla, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bonaire, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zimbabwe

May 15 Paraguay

May 26 Poland

May 27 Bolivia

last Sunday in May Algeria, Dominican Republic, France (except if it coincides with Pentecost day, in which case Mother's Day will be shifted to the first Sunday of June), Haiti, Mauritius, Morocco, Sweden, Tunisia.

May 30 Nicaragua

June 1 Mongolia (The Mothers and Children's Day. Mongolia is the only country that celebrates Mother's day twice a year.)

2nd Sunday of June Luxembourg

Last Sunday of June Kenya

August 12 Thailand (the birthday of Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara)

August 15 (Assumption Day) Antwerp (Belgium), Costa Rica

Second Monday in October Malawi

October 14 Belarus

Third Sunday in October Argentina (Día de la Madre)

Last Sunday of November Russia

December 8 Panama

16 December, Iranian calendar: 25 Azar (Mother And Child Foundation) Iran (This date is almost deprecated inside Iran and is replaced by birthdate of Fatimah daughter of Islam prophet.)

December 22 Indonesia