Sunday is #MothersDay… in case you needed a reminder. pic.twitter.com/VWjxGTk7N1
— Hulu (@hulu) May 11, 2023
So…did you remember? If not, don’t stress, because you still have a few days left until Mother’s Day this Sunday! Mother’s Day in North America is always on the second Sunday of May, which happens to be the 14th this year. This holiday is the perfect time to show your mom how much you love and appreciate all that she does for you. Different moms like different things–gifts, dinner, quality time, flowers, to just be left alone all day…there are plenty of options out there. I know my mom likes when the family spends the day together doing something fun, like a hike or picnic, weather permitting. A card is always a safe bet, too. A little note expressing gratitude and love will make her day, trust me.
There aren’t any hard and fast rules when it comes to celebrating Mother’s Day–every family does it a little bit differently. It’s one of those holidays that doesn’t have any strict traditions, which can actually make it seem a bit more difficult to celebrate. That being said, where did the holiday originate? Outside of the fact that moms are awesome and deserve to be celebrated EVERY day, where did Mother’s Day originally come from?
The holiday is actually a lot older than you might guess…we need to travel all the way back to ancient Greece! The Greeks would hold festivals to honor a few mother goddesses: Gaia, Cybele, Rhea. These festivals were very early celebrations of motherhood. “Mothering Sunday”, a Christian ecclesiastical holiday, was also an early example of a motherhood celebration, with Medieval origins. Celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, the holiday made it through the Reformation, and has managed to stick around to this day in the UK, continuing on as simply Mother’s Day. If you’ve ever wondered why North America and the UK have different mother’s day dates, that’s why!
The North American holiday really took off in the early 20th century. An American woman named Anna Jarvis organized the first Mother’s Day celebration as a way to express gratitude to mothers and to honor her late mother. She campaigned to have Mother’s Day be an official holiday on the calendar, and in 1914, former president Woodrow Wilson signed the holiday into official existence.
Mother’s Day is also celebrated all over the world. Mothers EVERYWHERE deserve appreciation, after all. Spend some time with your mom this weekend if you’re able to, this kinda stuff is important and will make her day! Moms rock!!
