Interesting Facts About Mother’s Day

My own mother will be in Guam to attend the wedding of a niece on the second Sunday of May this year. I myself am not too keen on celebrating the day, except maybe for daydreams of sleeping in and having Rodic’s tapsilog served to me in bed (a logistic impossibility).

However, the concept of officially celebrating motherhood with a special day is an interesting one.  The facts behind the celebration make it even more interesting.

• The founder of Mother’s Day in the United States, Anna Jarvis, never became a mother

• She died in poverty after spending her life fighting against the commercialization of Mother’s Day

• She was against giving cards to celebrate Mother’s Day, saying it was too impersonal

• She fought against florists and flower shops who were seeking to make a profit from the now official holiday

• She preferred giving a simple gift of a handwritten letter and a carnation, which was her own mother’s favorite flower

• In Christian symbolism, carnations are said to represent a mother’s undying love

• A carnation is said to have sprung up from the tears of Mary as her son Jesus carried the cross

• Mother’s day is correctly spelled with the apostrophe in the singular

•  It is a day meant to celebrate your own mother, and not ALL mothers

• According to statistics, it is the favorite day for eating out in the States

• It is the second highest day for gift-giving, after the Christmas holidays

• Mother’s day is a busy time for restaurants, florists, greeting card stores, and telephone companies

• Before the U.S. version of Mother’s Day, there were precursors of the celebration that were religious in nature

• Our prehistoric ancestors worshipped the mother goddess, or the Earth Mother

• The Egyptians honored the goddess Isis in a  similar holiday

• Ancient Greeks and Romans also had their versions, with their worship of Cybele and Rhea

• Catholics have a special day for honoring the Virgin Mary

• The British celebrated a similar holiday, called Mothering Sunday

• Among other things, it was a sort of “day off” for domestic maids in the United Kingdom

• Aside from going back home to their mothers, it was also a day for visiting the mother church

• Mothering Sunday is at the fourth Sunday of Lent

• Mother’s day doesn’t fall on the same day for everyone

• Some countries celebrate it together with these aforementioned pre-existing holidays

16 years and 3 sons after, and she finally thinks she can be a mom blogger. Kelly is an artist and writer who loves to stare at a blade of grass on her good days. On bad days, she drinks inordinate amounts of coffee and multitasks as her soul dreams of mountains unclimbed and her warm soft bed. She is torn by both visions. Her favorite color is blue-green.