It will be because the one who generates life is the mother, it will be because nature is also Mother, it will be because the Italians are considered a people of mammonia, the fact is that the Mother's Day is the third most celebrated holiday in the world, preceded by Christmas and Easter.
It does not matter what the age of the children is, but from the first year of life (helped by the father) and for all the following years, every son and every daughter will want to celebrate their mother with one of the most heartfelt anniversaries. On this occasion, in fact, we take care to show our affection to the mother in a particular way, giving her memories, gifts and flowers: mother's day and emotions in the family are a combination based on mutual and indissoluble affection between mother and children.
In Italy we celebrate the second Sunday of May and this year it falls on May 8th. Many will remember that the date in the past was fixed and always this, whatever day of the week it happened; others, on the other hand, have noticed that in recent years the anniversary has been celebrated on different days.
But when was Mother's Day born? Why was it decided to dedicate a particular day to her? What is the true meaning of Mother's Day?
Here are 10 curiosities about the anniversary that pays homage to motherhood all over the world with a special day.
- Very ancient origins
Mother's Day has origins very ancient. It is necessary to go back many centuries to discover that the ancient Greek and Latin polytheistic peoples, among their celebrations, had one dedicated to the cult of motherhood and fertility of female divinities. They celebrated them in spring, the season in which nature awakens from winter hibernation and becomes fruitful, just like a mother. For this reason the deities were associated with agriculture.
But the celebration was also dedicated to the cult of Mother Earth, which is the origin of life, and was called Sale by the Greeks and Cybele from the Latins.
- English Mother's Day
Even in the Middle Ages there are traces of today's Mother's Day and the credit goes to the Anglo-Saxons. It was they, in 1600, who celebrated the Mothering Sunday, Also called Mother’s Day, a Christian celebration dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which took place on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
Over the years, this date also became the only day off for the servants (who were often children), who could go home to their families and mothers. On that day, affection was celebrated, a feeling that has continued to the present day: in the United Kingdom, in fact, this day is still very much felt and is celebrated, as then, on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
- Modern Mother's Day was born in the USA
If Mother's Day is still celebrated in the modern world, it is due to the United States around 1860. To be precise, the credit goes to a mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, of his daughter Anna M. Jarvis need Julia Ward Howe, a poet and feminist activist for women's equality.
These three women engaged in three different moments: Ann Reeves Jarvis was a pacifist and promoter of many campaigns to raise awareness of the population on the problems of infant mortality and breast milk contamination, in the years following the 1860s. meetings and picnics to create a friendship between the mothers of the Northerners and the Southerners, the two enemy sides during the civil war that has now ended.
It was in this context that the work of Julia Ward Howe was inserted: in 1870, in fact, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation, a manifesto calling on mothers to actively engage in restoring peace between American states.
When Ann died on May 9, 1905, her daughter Anna Jarvis continued her path with the same commitment. On May 10, 1908, she organized events dedicated to the mother figure recognized in the world in many cities of the United States and, little by little, these days attracted many people and the interest of politicians. It was in 1914, then, that the President of America Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed National Mother's Day, which has since been celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Anna decided to also give a symbol to the party and chose the white carnation, the mother's favorite flower.
- Mother's day in Italy
The first to celebrate the mother in Italy were the fascists. The date is that of December 24, 1933 is the name of her that they gave her was Mother's and Child's Day: on that occasion the most prolific mothers were rewarded, that is, those who best honored the political line of the fascist regime, whose purpose was to increase the birth rate.
But between 1956 and 1957 there were two other occasions that gave birth to Mother's Day in Italy, one of a commercial nature and the other religious. The mayor of Bordighera Raul Zaccari, a town in Liguria, proclaimed a day of celebration of the mother, also to sell the many flowers grown in the Ligurian municipality, with the approval of Giacomo Pallanca, president of the Ente Fiera del Fiore and the Ornamental Plant of Bordighera-Vallecrosia.
On May 12, 1957, however, he was the parish priest of Tordibetto di Assisi, in Umbria, Don Otello Migliosi who undertook to celebrate the mother from the point of view of the figure of great religious value. A little curiosity: in Tordibetto there is the only one Mother's Park in Italy, designed by the architect Enrico Marcucci, in which there is a statue of motherhood made by the sculptor Enrico Manfrini.
Finally, in 1958, the Senate institutionalized Mother's Day celebrated on May 8 of each year, and that was the official date until 2000. Later, also in this case for commercial reasons, it was preferred to make the holiday coincide with the second Sunday in May, so that it always falls on a public holiday.
- Mother's day around the world
The first country to celebrate Mother's Day, following the chronological order of the calendar, is Norway, on the second Sunday of February. Georgia follows on March 3, while many Balkan countries such as Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Romania and Vietnam celebrate two anniversaries in a single day, March 8: Mother's Day and International Women's Day.
The United Kingdom, Ireland and other British countries, along with Norway, on the other hand, have kept the tradition of Mothering Sunday and they still celebrate it on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
In San Marino it is celebrated on March 15th; many Arab countries celebrate it on March 21, the day of the vernal equinox; on 25 March it is the turn of Slovenia and on 7 April of Armenia.
Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Lithuania and other African countries have chosen the first Sunday in May.
May 8 is Mother's Day in South Korea, while the second Sunday in May is the most popular, as well as for the United States, for many European countries including Italy, but also Japan, China, Australia, Uruguay, Brazil, India and South Africa.
Luxembourg has chosen the second Sunday in June, Thailand on August 12, Argentina on the third Sunday in October, and it continues until December 22, the day of Mother's Day in Indonesia.
- The presidential stamp
The President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as well as many other American politicians, he was so tied to this holiday to the point of dedicating an official stamp to her and personally designed, in 1934, with dedicated cancellation.
Even in Italy, over the years, the Post Office has dedicated philatelic cancellations to Mother's Day, as well as a special collectible postcard.
- Flowers are the symbol of the party
In the first place among the gifts chosen to give to mothers to celebrate her feast are flowers, followed by jewels and chocolates. The flowers are, therefore, the symbol of Mother's Day. And perhaps it is precisely for this reason that the thesis of the birth of Mother's Day in Italy in Bordighera, famous for the many flower greenhouses, is very accredited.
But you have to pay attention to the color chosen: according to tradition and the language of flowers, there is a flower color more or less suited to the character. of the mother.
- Lots of phone calls to mom
Statistics show that, on Mother's Day, the largest number of phone calls are made during the year. In the UK, for example, the number of phone calls increases by 37% compared to other days.
- Men spend more
It has been estimated that sons spend around 35% more than daughters to buy a gift for their mother. In the United States, for example, $ 2017 billion was spent on gifts for mothers in 23.
- M of mom
In almost all the languages spoken around the world, the word mother always starts with the letter m.
