Surprising Facts About Mother’s Day You Didn’t Know
Mother’s Day is a celebration to honour the mother of the family, as well as motherhood. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. The first Mother’s Day was celebrated in US in 1908. Anna Jarvis honored her mother Ann Jarvis with a memorial. Anna Jarvis’ mother had started a committee in 1868 to establish ‘Mother’s Friendship Day’ to reunite families after the Civil War. She died in 1905, before Mother’s Day became a holiday.
Anna never had any children, but wanted to carry out her own mother’s wishes of having a day just for moms. In 1912, Anna Jarvis trademarked both ‘Mother’s Day’ and ‘the second Sunday in May’. She also created Mother’s Day International Association. Anna tirelessly campaigned and on May 8th, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
On this day in U.S, approximately an amount of $14 billion is spent, 122 million phone calls are made to Mothers and 133 million Mother’s Day cards are exchanged.
Studies and research now show that giving a bouquet of flowers has many positive health and psychological benefits and Mother’s Day sees around one quarter of all flowers purchased throughout the year falling on this holiday.
Carnations are very popular flowers for Mother’s Day and are thought to be made from the tears of Jesus’ mother (Mary) when she wept at his feet the day He was crucified, making them the symbol of a mother’s undying love. Carnations also signify purity, love, beauty and charity which are the characteristics of a mother. You give either pink or red ones to mothers who are still alive and white ones to those who have passed away.
Interestingly, in most languages around the world the word for mother begins with the letter M.
Mother’s day is celebrated around the world in different days and in different ways. For example, in the former Yugoslavia, children would tie up their mother on Mother’s Day. In order to be freed she had to pay them with treats. In Bolivia, the date chosen for Mother’s Day was based on the day that women participated in a battle. Other countries have also chosen the date for Mother’s Day to coincide with holidays that also celebrate women.
Strange but true, the oldest woman to deliver a baby was recorded on April 9, 2003., Satyabhama Mahapatra, a 65-year-old retired schoolteacher in India gave birth to a baby boy, which was her first child after 50 years of marriage. However, the eggs were donated by her 26 year-old niece.
Let’s celebrate the Mother’s day with flowers or bouquets as beautiful as our mother and feel the breeze of her unconditional love with a pure smile.
