Mother’s Day is celebrated in 46 out of 195 countries on five continents. The date varies from country to country. Surprisingly, each nation organises special events to celebrate motherhood and to thank the women who generate life, create it and defend it with constant care and support.
The origin of Mother’s Day dates back to Greco-Roman antiquity. The oldest known evidence (dating back to about 250 years before the birth of Christ) is the annual spring festivals that the Greeks and Romans dedicated to maternal goddesses: the Greeks to Rhea, wife of Cronus and mother of many deities in Greek mythology; the Romans to Cybele, the mother goddess.
Centuries passed and in 1600, in Great Britain, Christians in the country began to celebrate a holiday called Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. There are two possible origins of this tradition. Some believe that the ceremonies honouring the Roman mother goddess Cybele were Christianized and that the Mother of Christ was venerated in her place. Others argue that the British Christians at the time attended the nearest parish, which they called the mother church.
At that time, after reaching the age of 10, children left home to work as apprentices or servants. Therefore, it was considered important that these children could visit their homes and their mother churches once a year. Thus, in the middle of Lent, children received permission from their employers to visit the mother church on the Sunday that honoured the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ. And they went to their father’s house to bring gifts, flowers and special sweets for their mother. This custom, however, almost completely disappeared in the 19th century.
The idea of officially celebrating Mother’s Day was born in the United States of America when the writer and activist Julia Ward Howe, in 1872, wrote an appeal to women and urged them to rise up against war in her Mother’s Day Proclamation, written in Boston in 1870, in which she proposed that June 2 be celebrated annually as Mother’s Day and be dedicated to peace.
However, it was another American woman, Anna Jarvis, who is recognized as the founder of Mother’s Day in the United States. Although she never married or had children, she fulfilled the wish of her mother, Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis, to honour all mothers, living and dead. Her hard work paid off in 1911, with the first celebration of Mother’s Day in nearly every state in the Union, and on May 8, 1914, President Thomas Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
In the United States of America, Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May, is a public holiday. The national flag is flown at half-mast in all homes and important buildings to honour the mothers of the country. The celebration, although heavily commercialised, is characterised by enthusiasm and joy. People reflect on the importance of mothers in their lives and thank them for their unconditional love and support.
On this day, children express their love to their mothers, for example by freeing them from the kitchen. They bring her breakfast in bed, prepare a sumptuous meal, or go to a restaurant. Another gesture is to offer flowers. Carnations are the official flower of Mother’s Day, red or pink for living mothers, and white carnations are placed on the graves of deceased mothers.
In the United Kingdom, the 20th century revived Mother’s Day. It is once again celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Flowers are offered: roses, carnations and chrysanthemums, and children prepare an almond cake called Mothering Cake.
In Canada, Mother’s Day is very similar to that of the United States. In addition, there is a tradition of promoting the meeting not only between children and mothers, but also with grandmothers and women who are like their mothers, making them feel how special they are.
Moving on to Latin America, in Mexico the event has a fixed date, May 10. In addition to the cards, gifts and plays prepared by children, a special mass is organized in churches and the highlight is when the orchestra plays the famous song “Las Manianitas“, dedicated to the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe.
On this day, two traditional Mexican delicacies are symbolically distributed, which are the traditional start of the morning for Mexican mothers: tamales – a corn-based pasta with sauce, chicken or beans sautéed with cheese, wrapped in a corn cob leaf – and the hot corn-based drink, atole.
In Peru, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May. Some of its traditions are also unique. The date is prepared with trips and days off so that it becomes an opportunity to spend the holiday with family and friends. Children show their love with gifts and flowers, recite poems and stories, and organize trips, moments of leisure and special meals. The Peruvian commemoration is unique: the family gathers in the cemetery with food and drink to honour deceased mothers.
In Brazil, the celebrations are very similar to those in the United States, including the fact that the day is a holiday. Society, in general, prepares to offer mothers the best experience, with gifts, meals and special shows. But the best part of the day is represented by family trips to green spaces, in a kind of celebration of the general motherhood of nature.
In the most Catholic country in Asia, the Philippines, the name by which children call their mothers is very significant: llaw ng tahanan, which means “the light of the house”. With this expression, they describe the comfort and warmth they give to the family. Another expression that describes a mother’s sacrifice is: “Even if the food is ready for her, she will always want to feed her children with it.” And on Mother’s Day, which is celebrated on Sunday with a special Mass, all the women in the family are honoured: grandmothers, aunts, cousins.
In the most populous country in the world, India, Mother’s Day – imported from the Western world – has been celebrated for less than a decade. However, in the Hindu religion, mothers have embodied qualities such as love, sacrifice, tolerance and selfless service to their children for millennia. The sacred books of Hinduism dedicate many verses to them and the mother is so important that next to every Hindu deity there is always a divine mother.
In general, countries in Asia and Africa replicate Mother’s Day in the United States. Something unique, however, is found in Ethiopia, where this eve is celebrated with the utmost enthusiasm, so much so that the festival lasts three days, during which wishes are expressed and predictions are made for the future.
A detail of the festival is the meal prepared by the children, in which the boys have the task of bringing lamb or beef, while the girls bring vegetables, butter, spices and cheese. At the end of the meal, a ritual unites mother and daughter: they spread butter on each other’s faces. (Fernando Félix)
