Mother’s Day, ÚíÏ ÇáÃã , Muttertag, La Festa della Mamma, Mothering Sunday, Fête des Mères, Día de las Madres... it goes by many different names, but however you say it, the expression of love and appreciation is the same.

Most mothering festivals in early history were in the springtime to celebrate the rebirth of the land and the beginning of the most fertile time of the year. These festivities honored the goddess in all women. In ancient Egypt, Isis was the Queen of Heaven who ruled over all matters concerning mothering. In ancient Greece Rhea was revered as the mother goddess and in ancient Rome it was Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, and another mother goddess known as Cybele.

Mother’s Day in the Arab world started with an idea proposed by 2 famous Egyptian journalists in response to letters from mothers complaining that their children do not look after them in their old age. Mustafa Amin and Ali Amin wrote in their daily column ( ÝßÑÉ ) to propose that people celebrate Mother’s Day on the first day of spring, i.e. the 21st of March every year. Readers welcomed the idea, and the first Mother’s Day was celebrated in Egypt in 1956. Since then, the tradition spread to other Arab countries, and now all Arab countries celebrate Mother’s Day on the same day.

The modern version of Mother’s Day with families bringing Mother’s Day flowers and gifts to their moms can be traced back to seventeenth century England. Mothering Sunday was the fourth Sunday in Lent... a special day when all the strict rules about fasting and penance were put aside. Older children who were away from home learning a trade or working as servants were allowed to return home for Mothering Sunday. The family gathered for a feast with Mother as the special guest. Along with a rare visit from her children, mothers were given treats of cakes and wildflower bouquets. While ‘Mothering Sunday’ is still celebrated, most now know it as Mother’s Day.

The history of Mother’s Day in the rest of the world is a bit different. In the USA, the early English settlers often disapproved of the more secular holidays and the Mothering Sunday tradition never really took hold. Early attempts to have a day to honor mother’s were mixed with woman’s suffrage and peace movements and were not very popular.

But the holiday has more somber roots: It was founded for mourning women to remember fallen soldiers and work for peace. Mrs. Jarvis (Anna Jarvis’s mother) held an annual gathering, Mother’s Friendship Day, to heal the pain of the Civil War. And after she died in 1905, Anna (her daughter) campaigned for the establishment of an official Mother’s Day to commemorate her mother.

Anna Jarvis devoted her entire life to the struggle to have Mother’s Day declared a national holiday. It wasn’t to celebrate all mothers. It was to celebrate the best mother you’ve ever known -- your mother -- as a son or a daughter. That’s why Jarvis stressed the singular “Mother’s Day,” rather than the plural “Mothers’ Day”. And when the holiday went commercial, its greatest champion, and the one woman who was working on establishing Mother’s Day, gave everything to fight it, dying penniless and broken in a sanitarium.

It didn’t take very long for Mother’s Day to change from a semireligious occasion of prayers for peace and appreciation of the work and love of mothers around the world to a gifts, flowers, candy and dining out extravaganza.

Mother’s Day may not have turned out to be the holiday that Anna Jarvis and countless other women around the world imagined, but it is a celebration of mothers... it’s known mostly as a time for brunches, gifts, cards, and general outpourings of love and appreciation, dedicated to honoring the women who give so much to their families without asking for anything in return. Perhaps every day should be Mother’s Day, but most families are too busy with everyday business to say thank you for every meal or every good night kiss.

And that’s exactly why once every year, the world stops being busy and says thank you. Flowers, cards and gifts are just the outward signs. What mothers love most is the fact that their families really do notice all that they do and for one day every mom is queen for a day...

Happy Mother’s Day...!

By: Dahlia Nassar