O Mothers Day is an event that takes place in various parts of the world and aims to celebrate the love and affection of all mothers.
In Brazil, the celebration is celebrated on the second Sunday of the month of May. On this day, it is common for people to offer gifts to their mothers and send messages of love.
Mother's Day Origin
It all started in Greece and ancient Rome
This celebration originated in Greece and Ancient Rome, more precisely in the spring festivals. In these events, cults of worship to the deities that represented the mothers took place, such as the Goddesses Reia, mother of the gods, or Cybele, the Roman mother Goddess, also known as Magna Mater.
Over time, this celebration has grown and acquired a prominent place on the commemorative dates, being celebrated in almost all parts of the world, at different times.
In England, Mothering Day appears in the 17th century
In the 17th century, England emerged as a motivator of events and celebrations in honor of mothers. There, the date is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent and called “
motheringday”. Since then, workers have taken this day off in order to visit their mothers.In the United States, at the beginning of the 20th century, the date as we know it became popular
The celebration gained greater visibility through the efforts of Anna Jarvis (1864-1948), a young American woman who had lost her mother, activist Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, in 1905.
Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis already had a job in the sense of valuing women who exercise motherhood and had founded in 1858 the mothers Day Work clubs, carrying out campaigns in favor of working mothers and against infant mortality. Following in her mother's footsteps, her daughter Anna also becomes an activist.
With Ann's death and the enormous sadness that this causes her, Anna Jarvis starts then, with the support of her friends, a campaign in the US to demonstrate the importance of the mother figure in society.
She continued her mother's work and managed to arrange for a day to celebrate mothers.
The date was made official in the United States in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) and became popular around the world, being celebrated with many gifts, family lunches and surprises.
Anna Jarvis was quite disappointed to realize that the event had become commercial, as it was deprived of its main objective, which was to bring mothers and children together and celebrate the mother's presence.
In her words: “I didn't create mother's day to make a profit”, a phrase that emphasizes his indignation at this commercial phenomenon. In many countries, the celebration is considered one of the highest profit and consumer movement seasons after Christmas.
Anyway, Anna, who spared no efforts for this day to be made official as a way to honor all mothers, with the popularization of the date and its marketing use, fought for its elimination.
The 1st Mother's Day in Brazil arrives in 1932
In Brazil, Mother's Day is celebrated in second sunday of may, as well as in the United States, Japan and Italy.
The date was implemented in 1932 during the Getúlio Vargas government, although it has been commemorated since 1918, at the initiative of the Associação Cristã de Moços, from Porto Alegre.
Later, in 1947, Archbishop Dom Jaime de Barros Câmara determined that the day would also be part of the official calendar of the Catholic Church.
In the country, the date is very popular and celebrated in many ways, such as special events and school activities.
Phrases for Mother's Day
Below are some sentences uttered by great personalities in the story on the theme of mothers:
- “A mother's arms are made of tenderness and her children sleep deeply in them.” (Victor Hugo)
- “A mother's love for her child is unlike anything else in the world. He does not obey law or piety, he dares all things and remorselessly exterminates everything that gets in his way..” (Agatha Christie)
- “God couldn't be everywhere and that's why he created mothers.” (Rudyard Kipling)
- “The heart of mothers is an abyss at the bottom of which forgiveness is always found..” (Honoré de Balzac)
- “Everything is uncertain in this hideous world, but not a mother's love.” (James Joyce)
- “I have brothers, father, but no mother. Who doesn't have a mother, has no family.” (Plato)
Read too: May commemorative dates
