On the 8th of March Nepal, along with many other countries, celebrated International Women’s Day. It is a day that has been set aside for people to remember their mothers both past and present. It is a similar idea to Mothering Sunday in the UK or Mother’s Day in America. Celebration of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honour of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the clearest modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.” Mothering Sunday is held on the fourth Sunday in Lent in many English speaking countries. During the Middle Ages, the custom developed of allowing people who had moved away from where they grew up to come back to visit their mothers, on the fourth Sunday of the Christian festival. At that time, it wasn’t uncommon for children to leave home to work when they were as young as 10 years old, so this was an opportunity for families to meet up again once a year.
In the United States, as early as 1870, the suffragette Julia Ward Howe made her Mother’s Day Proclamation, which called upon mothers of all nationalities to band together to promote the “amicable settlement of international questions, on the great and general interests of peace”. The celebration of mothers was further promoted by another suffragette Anna Jarvis, she had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother’s Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. Her campaign to make Mother’s Day a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, although in 1908, the U.S. Congress rejected the proposal to make it an official holiday, joking that they would also have to proclaim a “Mother-in-law’s Day”. However, owing to the efforts of Anna Jarvis, by 1911 all U.S. states observed the holiday, with some of them officially recognizing Mother’s Day as a local holiday. Then in 1914, president Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother’s Day, to be held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honour mothers.
No matter which nation you come from the idea of giving thanks for your mother resounds through the centuries. To remember her love and sacrifice is an important thing that should not be forgotten. The Bible exhorts us to honour and obey are mothers. Emphasizing the love that she has for her children and comparing it to the love of God for all his children. “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee”, states Isaiah 49 verse 15. Sometimes mothers can forget the child they bore, but God says he will never forget his children, because he loves his children with an everlasting love. So all those that trust in him are his children and experience his love.
Over time the Mothering Sunday and Mother’s Day tradition shifted into a more secular holiday. Today, children present their mothers with flowers and other tokens of appreciation. However, the core principle of talking with your mother has continued throughout the centuries. According to the statistics more phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year. These holiday chats with Mom often cause phone traffic to spike by as much as 37 percent! So when you celebrate Mother’s Day remind her of the love, care and honour you have for her. Happy Mother’s Day!
P. Pilgrim Pilgrimway101@yahoo.com
