This Sunday is Mother’s Day in Australia.
It’s always a tricky one for me.
I no longer have my mum (she died when I was 23) and I’m not a mother myself.
But it doesn’t mean I can’t spend a few moments thinking about her.
To be honest, I do that often anyway – I don’t really need a special day to do it.
But it got me thinking about the origins of Mother’s Day.
In Europe it started in the Middle Ages as Christians returned home to their ‘mother’ churches and homes.
This happened on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and became Mothering Sunday in the UK.
There are claims it dates back further to ancient times when Greeks and Romans held festivals in honour of the mother goddesses, Rhea and Cybele.
But the origins of our current Mother’s Day are very much set in American history.
In 1870 Julia Ward Howe wrote her ‘Appeal to womanhood throughout the world’.
It was a call to women to unite for world peace, following the carnage of the American Civil War.
It became known as the Mother’s Day Proclamation.
Howe launched several failed attempts to start a Mother’s Day celebration.
But the first official Mother’s Day was organised in May 1908, by Anna Jarvis.
It was in memory of her own mother, Ann, a social activist who had established Mothers’ Day Work Clubs before the Civil War, and had run several successful ‘Mothers’ Friendship Days’.
Jarvis lobbied to make it official, and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made the second Sunday in May a national holiday.
Interestingly, Jarvis hated how commercial the day became, and later campaigned against it.
It’s also interesting to note the movement of the apostrophe.
Jarvis wanted it to be a singular possessive – a day dedicated to each, individual mother.
Whereas her own mother had wanted to celebrate the work done by all mothers!
So whether you’re spending time with your mum this weekend, or being pampered as a mum yourself, it’s worth reflecting on those early women who wanted the work of mothers to be recognised.
If you give gifts, be mindful of what you are giving.
Give from the heart, with meaning (that doesn’t mean it has to be expensive) and purpose.
More importantly, don’t just do this on Mother’s Day.
Do it whenever you can.
We never know how long we have with our mums, and I miss mine every single day.
So happy Mother’s Day to all mums, each and every day.
Ann 🙏