Honoring Mom

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Mother’s Day is always celebrated on the second Sunday of May.  Retailers report it as the second highest gift giving holiday behind Christmas.  Florists have their highest sales and US restaurants claim it is their busiest day of the year.  But how did it get started?  Is it meant to be a sentimental holiday or a commercialized holiday?

While Mother’s Day has its roots dating back to the Ancient Egyptians and Romans, in the U.S., Julia Ward Howe, a social activist, abolitionist, and author of the Battle Hymn of Republic, is credited with creating the celebration.   She introduced the Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870, urging mothers to band together in peace and opposition to war because of her distress over the casualties from the Civil War.

President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother’s Day an official holiday in 1914 thanks to the efforts of Anna Jarvis who wanted to honor her own mother.  Anna’s mother founded Mothers’ Day Work Clubs that raised money to supply medicine for the sick, provided home help for mothers suffering from tuberculosis, and volunteered to nurse the wounded Union and Confederate soldiers with neutrality.   However, when she saw that Mother’s Day was no longer a day of sentiment but a “Hallmark” holiday, she spent the rest of her life protesting the holiday she created, including spending time in jail.  She spent her inheritance on this losing battle and died in 1948, blind, penniless, and alone.

Our mother is our first and most powerful female role model.  She is the nucleus of the family.  She is our first teacher.  She introduced us to solid food, helped us take our first steps, and taught us how to tie our shoes.  Some of us have a great relationship with Mom.  While I, like others, had a conflicted relationship with Mom. 

Keep in mind that Mother’s Day is a time to honor not only our own mother, but the other mothers of our lives – the women who may have raised us or gave us care and nurturing when our biological mothers could not.   These women also helped shape our lives and deserve to be remembered.

Yes, it is wonderful to have a special day for Mom.  If you’re like Anna Jarvis, you’re unhappy about the commercialism around this day.  However, there are things we can do to celebrate our moms by examining the ways we honor our mothers in our everyday activities.  We are our mothers’ legacies as their hopes and dreams are fulfilled in us.  We become the singers, the artists, the scientists, the athletes that they could not be.   My mom had a beautiful voice and wanted to be a singer.  Instead, she got married and had six children.  She died in June, 2005 after fighting colon cancer.  While I can’t carry a tune, I’m honoring her life by running the Chicago Rock ‘n Roll ½ Marathon with Team DetermiNation, raising money for the American Cancer Society.  What are you doing to honor your mom this year?