I love you, Mom

SHOBHA MENON

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers, says a Jewish proverb. This year Mother's Day falls on May 14. Could a spring festival in Ancient Greece have been the origin of this special day, celebrated by most countries in the world, for these very special people? Probably... because this spring celebration honoured the goddess Rhea, the 'Mother of the gods'.

By the 1600s it was recorded that 'Mothering Sunday' was observed on the fourth Sunday of the Lent season to honour the mothers of England. It was a day when they went to visit their mothers, with a cake specially baked for them. This was known as 'Mothering Cake'.

Very soon, as Christianity spread, this celebration changed to honour the Church, as the spiritual power that gave life and protected believers from harm. Blending with Mothering Sunday, the festival honoured both mothers and the Church.

To Ana Jarvis of Philadelphia, we owe the observance of a day to honour mothers and the qualities of motherhood. Her own mother, in the late 19th Century, had tried to establish Mother's Friendship Days as a way to heal the scars of the civil war. Two years after she died, a ceremony was held in a church to commemorate her anniversary, on the second Sunday of May 1907. And so moved Ana was by the response, that she began a massive campaign to observe a National Mother's Day. By the following year, the whole of Philadelphia followed. Determinedly, she and her supporters went about writing and enlisting the support of religious heads, businessmen and politicians.

The campaign was a success. By 1911, the second Sunday of May began to be observed in every state in the U.S. as Mother's Day. And President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, officially proclaimed Mother's Day as a national holiday. While countries like Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Belgium also celebrate it on the second Sunday of May, other countries celebrate this day on different dates.

So go ahead, say it with cards, flower or just great big bear hugs. Tell your Mom 'I love you', in your own special way. b

Gandhiji felt that education is a process by which one tries to attain self- realisation, along with other members of society.

Gandhiji inspects a guard of honour by the S.S.D. High School, Haripur Boy Scouts at Taxila in 1939.0

May 14, is Mother's Day. A day to tell your mother how much you appreciate her and show her that you care. What surprise have you planned?

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Edu-question?
Next     : A different summer