If you were able to celebrate yesterday with your mother or are a mother yourself, you might be curious about some of the following facts about Mother’s Day. What is the origin of Mother’s Day? You may not be surprised to know it started as a pagan holiday in ancient Greece to celebrate Rhea, the mother of the gods. Most of our holidays do seem to start with the Greeks or Romans. More recently in America, in 1908, a woman named Anna Jarvis organized a celebration of the day in honor of her mother and other mothers who sacrifice for their children. She thought there were too many days celebrating men and wanted a special day for women. She herself never married or had children, but she persisted in her campaign to make it a special day. And good for her!
After some pressure, in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May every year. Initially, Jarvis was thrilled and thought it should be celebrated with a white carnation and a visit to your mother. But by 1920 she had become so disgusted by the commercialization of the day, she publicly denounced it and spent the rest of her life suing and harrassing florists and card companies for using the day to enrich themselves.
Many countries around the world do celebrate mothers on a special day. Sometimes a mother is given some time off from cooking and caregiving, but mostly it involves cooking and caregiving — by mothers! Having said all this, I am happy to receive flowers, but what I really want for Mother’s Day this year is action in the way of donations to one of the following organizations.
Grandmothers against gun violence – https://www.grandmothersagainstgunviolence.org/join-renew-donate
https://momsdemandaction.org/
This past week has been a particularly hard one for moms and grandmoms around the country. We worry about the safety of our kids and grandkids at school, at the movies and the mall, and it feels like there is little we can do about it. To hear about a mother who shielded her son in Allen, TX, dying in the process, is more than tragic. It made me realize that, while I would be willing to throw myself in the way of a gun to save my child’s life, I am much more interested in using my body and voice to speak out about gun violence while I am alive. For that reason, I have joined Grandmothers Against Gun Violence and I encourage our readers to check them and Moms Demand Action out as well. Yesterday in Texas, Moms Demand Action were successful in lobbying the legislature to pass out of committee legislation that would raise the age to purchase and possess firearms from 18 to 21! One legislator noted afterwards, “These moms are scary.” You bet we are! As the Founder of Grandmothers Against Gun Violence has said, “We show up, we stand up and we speak up.”
I think activism should be my mother’s day gift from now on. A few flowers won’t hurt, but I can buy them for myself!