Friday, May 11, 2007

mom

"Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived and fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.
In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day."
Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.
In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother's day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers."

if nothing else, give your mom a call...now knowing how childbirth feels, believe me, she deserves at least a phone call.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Friday before mother's day, I tutored as usual at English High School, our local failing school. The assignment the Juniors had for that day was to write (and revise and proofread and rewrite) letters to their mothers for Mother's Day. Here are some excerpts that I remember particularly well. Happy Mother's Day!

"Dear Mom,
I am writing to notify you that I love you. Even though I do lot's of bad things it is not because I want to hurt you. I will never hate you or do harm to you. So for Mother's Day I wanted to make you pancakes as this is the best food substance that I know of. But I wanted to try to make something different."

"Dear Mom,
I know that you had a hard time when you went to college and drop out because you pregnant. I appreciate everything you did for my sisters and me. I know that everything did not work out the way you wanted but that's life, Ma."

"Dear Mother,
There is something I have been keeping from you and it is that I got a tattoo on my arm. Not a big one and nothing that is a big deal. But that tattoo is about you because I want to honor you and show how much I love you. Please don't kill me."

"Dear Mom,
A big ocean separates us. But I want you to know that even in America I am everything I am because of you. I respect people and I look people in the eye when they talk to me and I read a lot and I don't swear in public. I believe what you taught me and the difference from right and wrong. I love you so much."