MOTHER’S DAY: A CELEBRATION OF BOND OF LOVE AND AFFECTION

Mother’s Day is a celebration of bond of love and affection between a mother and a child and it celebrates the spirit of motherhood. Find out the history behind the celebrations surrounding Mother’s Day.Bringing up a child through giving birth, and helping him or her growing up into an adult is considered to be the essence of motherhood. It is a challenge in itself, as she has to go through countless hardships in the process.

Mother’s Day is an occasion where the child and society remembers and acknowledges the essence and the effort that goes into giving birth and rearing a new life. This is a special day for children as well as the mothers and they get an opportunity to relish the everlasting bond of love and affection between them.

The Day

It is usually the second Sunday that comes in the month of May that Mother’s Day is observed by countries like America, Australia and Canada. There are two particular individuals that require special mention – Ms. Anna Jervis and Ms. Julia Ward Howe. Their efforts have brought us to acknowledge Mother’s Day in this world. US president, Woodrow Wilson signed the resolution that Mother’s Day would be celebrated hereon from 1914 on 8th March every year.

The Background of Celebrations

A celebration surrounding Mother’s Day or commemorating and honouring motherhood actually dates back to the Mother of Gods, Rhea, an occasion that merges with the springtime. This is according to the Greek mythology. In later history, we find that Mothering Sunday used to be celebrated in the United Kingdom as a traditional feast where people visited the church for being baptized.


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The Symbols Associated With the Occasion

Our due appreciation and respect for our mothers and mother figures in life are symbolised by many ways. Anna Jarvis, who is regarded as one of the founders of Mother’s Day as it is today, called for white carnations to mark the day. There is also this International Mother’s Day shrine in a museum in Grafton, West Virginia, US. The spirit of motherhood is celebrated here.

The Celebration Today

Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world through various occasions and presenting gifts to mothers and mother figures. It’s more about cards, flowers, jewelleries and visiting restaurants or gifting vacations. Although gifting our mothers as a note of thanks for their undoubtedly devoted love is quite appreciable, but there are critics who opine that this has now resulted in a commercialisation of the occasion and the real essence of it is somewhere getting subdued and lost.

Commemorating The Mother’s Day is more about expressing our gratitude than piling on material gifts. It is very essential for the progress and preservation of human society that we give due respects to our mothers through fulfilling our duties towards them in reality and not build a facade out of it. Mothers give birth and rear their kids out of pure love and affection and they deserve the same from their kids as they grow older and responsible human beings.

Showering cards, flowers, chocolates, and other gifts are surely enjoyed by women, who are mothers or mother figures as regarded by many, but they would be even happier to be loved, cared and respected for their selfless efforts as well. If we look deep into the concept of Mother’s Day, we will realise like many others that each and every day ought to be a Mother’s Day.


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They are relentlessly performing their duty towards ensuring and working towards the well being of their children day-in and day-out, without fail, and without break. So we as children need to be more sensitive and grateful for this fact and thank them every moment of our lives, for the sacrifice that they have been performing for us.

M-O-T-H-E-R

“M” is for the million things she gave me,
“O” means only that she’s growing old,
“T” is for the tears she shed to save me,
“H” is for her heart of purest gold;
“E” is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
“R” means right, and right she’ll always be,
Put them all together, they spell “MOTHER,”
A word that means the world to me.
–Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

When we speak of mothers, we are talking about an entity perhaps far greater than God itself. Mothers are the most reverend of humans who make us what we are, help us visualize things in a broader way and, above all, understand us like no one else can! It is but to thank them that we celebrate Mother’s Day.

With cakes, cards, chocolates, flowers, photo-framed memories and even jewellery, we try to thank our mothers for the innumerable sacrifices they did, sleeping very little at nights, being by our bedside when we were sick, giving us their best at all times and for instilling in us the belief that we are capable of achieving whatever we want.

“Thank you” seems like a very small word in front of Mothers who not just help us dream, but help us realize them step by step. Life wouldn’t be so beautiful if it was without our angels, our mothers! For a man, or even a father, it is not possible to understand the feeling of carrying a part of your own life in your womb. Motherhood begins there and continues until the death of the mother.

That is a period longer than any person’s job. However, so selfless is a mother that she asks for nothing in return. Our happiness, contentment and success are what she relishes as her rewards. Every woman in the world likes to be a mother.

The feeling of giving birth is nothing less than heavenly. For to-be-mothers, the world revolves around that tiny bump which carries their hopes, aspirations and wishes for the future. Mother’s Day is a token of the entire humanity’s gratitude to all mothers because of whom we have a planet worth living.

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