Mother’s Day celebrates mothers and motherhood. While many nations honor maternal bonds based on age-old traditions and faith on different days, nearly 40 plus countries observe the Americanized version of the day on the second Sunday of May.
How did Mother’s Day start?
In 1905, Anna Jaris kickstarted her campaign for mother’s day in the United States, on the year her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis died. Over the next five years, her efforts led to the proclamation in 1914 designating Mother’s Day as a local holiday by President Woodrow Wilson.
Ann Reeves Jarvis served as a peace activist, actively caring for those wounded in the American civil war, irrespective of which side they fought. She and her fellow activist Julia Ward Howe were seeking the observance of “Mother’s day for peace.”
Howe’s “Mother’s Day proclamation,” penned in 1870, nearly forty years before Mother’s Day became an official holiday, spoke for mothers who no longer wanted their husbands and sons killed in wars.
However, companies like Hallmark cards soon commercialized Mother’s Day by selling cards commemorating the day. Anna Jarvis vehemently protested it and also objected to ‘American War Mothers’ selling Mother’s Day carnations to raise money. She said people could instead write handwritten letters expressing love and gratitude to their mothers.
We could call that a past. But, with no course correction, Mother’s Day continues to be commercialized for profit even today.
Mothering Day of Britain
The other famous Mother’s Day celebrated in Britain and other English-speaking countries is ‘Mothering Sunday.’ Constance Adelaide Smith patronized the day, referring to the Medieval Christian ecclesiastical tradition. Mothering Sunday falls on the 4th Sunday of the lent every year.
In India, though there is no traditional significance associated with Mother’s Day, people still celebrate it with greetings and gifts. Wishing Mother’s Day, many political leaders have penned tweets today praising mothers and their selfless love.
Countries Mother’s Day Observed
India – 2nd Sunday Of May
USA – 2nd Sunday Of May
France – Last Sunday Of May
Germany – 2nd Sunday Of May
Malaysia – 2nd Sunday Of May
Hungary – 1st Sunday Of May
Mother’s Day is celebrated in more than 40 countries around the world, though not celebrated on the same day.