Mother's Day Celebration Over the Years

Mother’s Day has its origins in ancient Greece, namely the festival dedicated to Rhea. According to Greek mythology Rhea was the wife of Cronus or Kronos (god of time) and the mother of all gods and goddesses of Olympus.

Much later, with the advent of Christianity, the “Mother Church” gradually replaced “Mother Goddess”, so most honored ceremony on Cybele became ceremony in honor of Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. In other words, over time, the two holidays were mixed and became one, called “Mother’s Day”. Mothers have always represented the spiritual power that gave us birth and protects us.

So, in the 1600s in England, it was celebrated “Saturday Mothers” in the fourth week of Lent to celebrate all mothers. Of course at that time the majority was poor people who were working as servants for the wealthy ones, and they were celebrating Mother’s Day in their master’s house, where mothers were permitted to spend with loved ones.

Modern Times

Julia Ward Howe has proposed in 1872 for the first time in the United States, a holiday dedicated to mother that is also a peace dedicated holiday. She managed to convince the Church of Virginia to celebrate Mother’s Day in May, when it was commemorated two years after her mother’s death. It is known that Julia was very fond of his mother, and after her death, along with her sister has tried to establish a special day just for mothers. In fact, Mother’s Day was dedicated to not only mothers but also children to learn to appreciate the love for parents, because some often neglect their mother. So Julia was convinced that a day dedicated to mothers will increase the respect for parents and will unite families.

Following this campaign led by Julia, the first day of the mother was established on May 10, 1908. Carnations have become the specific flowers for this special day because they were the former Mrs. Jarvis’s favorite flowers, the mother of Julia. So today, Carnation is the symbol of a mother still alive, while a white carnation commemorates her loss.

In 1910 there was the first Mother’s Day proclamation, read by the Governor of Virginia. Then, this day was also celebrated in the same year in Oklahoma, and since that time, Mother’s Day was celebrated in all states.

In 1914, Mother’s Day was proclaimed as a national holiday on the second Sunday in May. Today many countries celebrate Mother’s Day at different times, but Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Italy and Finland celebrate Mother’s Day on the same day as the United States.