Mother's Day History

Most of us are aware of mother's day that is celebrated all over the world. It is a day set aside to honor mothers for their immense love and sacrifice towards their children. But none of us are really aware of the mother's day history. The history and establishment of mother's day is vast and it varies from place to place. However, the origin of mother's day lies in the tradition of paying tribute to Rhea, the mother of many deities and Cybele, the great mother of Gods. Read further to know about the legends associated with mother's day.

The ancient Greeks celebrated the annual spring festival in the honor of mother Rhea and Christians dedicated this holiday to the Virgin Mary. Mothers' day falls on the fourth Sunday of the Lent season. In England, this concept of honoring Godmothers expanded to the extent of including all mothers and thus acquired the name 'Mothering Sunday'.

The ancient Egyptian society had an annual festival of honoring the Goddess Isis, and this is believed to be one of the earliest historical records of celebrating and honoring a mother goddess. The Romans also had an ancient record of celebrating mother's day. The ancient Romans used to honor the Phrygian goddess Cybele, meaning "Great Mother." Cybele's roots extend from the Greek goddess Rhea, considered the mother of major deities.

rom the ancient world to the present day, celebrations of motherhood have evolved a lot. In the year 1600 in England, a clerical decree further enhanced the celebration of motherhood. In this decree, mothers were praised, acknowledged, and honored.

The trend of celebrating mother's day in the US is about a century and a half old and the credit for its commemoration goes to Anna Jarvis, who started a campaign to raise awareness about poor community health conditions and she advocated that this task of bringing enlightenment among people could be best done by mothers. Thus the day acquired the name "Mother's Work Day". Later on, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, encouraged the conducting of a peace rally by mothers, to convey the message of peace and harmony. The idea of mothers participating in the rally was that, they are the ones who have mainly suffered the pain of losing their near and dear ones.

Anna Jarvis always desired the celebration of a day in the memory of mothers. When Anna died in 1905, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign in the memory of her mother. She began to seek cooperation of big shots to support her in the campaign. Her hard work finally paid off in the year 1914, with the signing of the bill recognizing mother's day as a national holiday. Today, mother's day is celebrated throughout the world. It is a special day when children pay tribute to their mothers for their hard work, sacrifice, love, and care.