Not just another Hallmark holiday

Mother's Day was actually a spiritual holiday celebrating Goddesses and symbols rather than actual mothers.  Predating christianity, one of the earliest records of a 'Mother's Day' celebration was a yearly festival in ancient Egypt celebrating the goddess Isis.  She is considered the Mother of the pharoahs.  Oddly enough, she is often depicted cradling her son in a pose not unlike the Mother Mary cradling baby Jesus.

In ancient Rome, the history of Mother's day began with the celebration of Phrygian goddess Cybele (aka Magna Mater or Great Mother) and involved 3 day celebrations.  In Greece, they celebrated Rhea as the Mother of the gods.  Other societies celebrated similar deities including Gaia, the Earth Goddess and Meter Oreie the Mountain Mother.  Celebrations (often lasting 3 or more days) included games, parades, and displays of arts and crafts all in honor of the mother of the gods.

In post christianity Europe celebrations of Mother's Day began as a celebraton to honor the church.  The tradition was to travel back to the church one was baptized at to celebrate their "Mother Church".  They would decorate the church with jewels, flowers, and other offerings.  Finally, in the 1600's a decree was made in England to include real, actual mothers.  Held during Lent, servants and trade workers were given the day off to travel to their hometowns to visit their mothers and families.  It was called Mothering Day.  As an extra perk - this day was held during Lent and a reprieve was granted from the fasting and restrictions of Lent so that all of England could enjoy a family feast with MOM as the guest of honor.  Common gifts included cakes, flowers, and of course, visits from their children.

America, being founded by the puritans, put the kabash on most secular holidays, including Mother's Day.   They even reduced Christmas and Easter to somber, formal church events that lacked gifts and decorations.  It wasn't until 1870 that American women (Julia Ward Howe, to be exact) led the the charge to again celebrate mothers.  Howe was the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, but following the devastation of the war, she campaigned for all mothers, internationally,  to unite in a day of peace.  Her plea, in the form of a poem/song, denounced the carnage of war and sons being taken from their mothers, and beseeching women of all nationalities to campaign for peace world-wide.  This day ended up being June 2, and was made official in 1873.  But it lasted only 10 years.   The cause was then picked up again by Anna M Jarvis, in memory of her own mother, petitioned the church where her mother taught sunday school for over 20 years to dedicate a day for her devotion to the children of the church.  On May 10, 1908 the first official Mother's Day took place.  President Roosevelt later made it a National Holiday, and it is now celebrated on the second sunday in May.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!