Don't miss the meaning of Mother's Day

My kids are asking me: how come the Mother’s Day is not a statutory holiday and a long weekend?! I wondered “Why?” and their reply was simple: we want mom to stay home with us an extra day! WOW!

Last year Dwight Nelson asked “how much is your mother worth?” in his blog. Other blogs on Mother’s day remind us that behind this celebrative occasion is a sad and tragic story.

The modern version of Mother’s Day began in the early 20^th century. It started as a memorial service on the second Sunday in May of 1907, held by Anna Jarvis for her mother Ann Marie Reeves, who passed in 1905, at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, VA. The mourners present received a white carnation, which had been Ann Marie’s favourite flower. Anna organized another one a year later, and this service is generally accepted as the first official Mother’s Day event (1908).

Ann Marie Reeves was a social activist, born in 1832 through the years of the Civil War, doing community service and fundraising for mothers with tuberculosis. Eight of her 12 offspring died before reaching adulthood. Despite her personal tragedies, she never stopped her community service.

Just a few years later, by 1912, Anna Jarvis was upset to see the Mother’s Day being exploited by the flower, stationary and candy industries. For it was not meant to be just a day of appreciation, but the day of helping mothers to change the community. Yet, the “creator” of this even herself missed the point. She became a “party crusher.” She wanted to claim the day as her intellectual and legal property, preventing others to do Mother’s Day events in 1920s in New York and Pennsylvania. She eventually was committed to an asylum where she died, penniless, without a family, never becoming a mother herself.

Some historians point back to 1600s where in England on the fourth Sunday of Lent was an annual “Mothering Sunday,” an opportunity for Christians to visit their hometown church. It slowly evolved, as children working far away as domestic servants came back home to spend time with their mothers and family.

So, don’t miss the meaning of the day – it is not about feministic assertion of women’s right and rule, it is not about flowers and trinkets. It is another opportunity to honour motherhood, co-creators of humanity with God, co-redeemers of mankind through the care of the Seed for the Saviour. It all goes back to Eve (Hava in Hebrew) – the mother of all living.