Mother's Day

Mother's Day Celebration in India are slowly catching!

The concept of celebrating Mothers Day on the second Sunday of May is very new in India and it can be said that in a time span of less than a decade, Mothers Day has been a great success. In the presence of umpteenth number of existing festivals, it is a remarkable achievement for a foreign festival to make its presence felt in the vast and culturally diverse country like India.

Globalisation, to a great extent has helped to make this Western, or mainly American festival to make its presence felt in India. Besides interaction of Indians with the West is at an all time high. A lot many people have been in US or have their relatives staying there. Internet and satellite revolution has made information about other cultures more accessible than ever. But the reason behind the success of Mothers Day in India can be attributed to the emotions which are attached to the festival. Mothers are mothers everywhere, they are as much loved and respected in India as in any other part of the world. Perhaps Indians have always felt the need of such a day which is devoted solely to mothers. Mothers Day gives them all the opportunity to celebrate such a day.

Time to Reflect and Rejoice
Just as in the West, Indians too take Mothers Day as a time too reflect on the importance of mothers in their life. They take it is time to think about all the pains their mother took while they were sick, the hardships she went through in bringing them up and all the sacrifices she made so that they lead a better life. Mothers Day is the time to say a big thank you to mother for all this and for being a constant guiding force in our lives.

In India, people send cards to their mamas on Mothers Day. Make a meal for Mothers so that she can have a days rest from the kitchen. Tradition of giving gifts on Mothers Day is also rampant. The whole idea of celebrating Mothers Day is to thank mother, to make her feel important on the day and be happy about mothering caring children. Mothers should be pampered on the day by children and on the whole should be given a happy Mothers Day.

Celebrations in Metropolitan and Big Cities
Awareness about Mothers Day is much greater in metros and other big and happening cities than in smaller towns. Thanks to the booming card market, who keep reminding people about when is Mothers Day and how it must be celebrated.

In the capital city of Delhi, Mothers Day is celebrated in a big way and has been commericalised to a great extent. Big companies launch various women oriented products on the day and restaurants try to lure people with attractive advertisements. Media too creates a big hype about the day with special programmes and features.

Looking at the fast pace at which the excitement for Mothers Day is growing it will not be long when the Mothers Day will be noted as the national festival of India.

Mother's Day History

Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived and fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day."

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother's day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers."

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother's Day. In 1914 Anna's hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother's Day as a national holiday.

At first, people observed Mother's Day by attending church, writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents, and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis became enraged. She believed that the day's sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In 1923 she filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother's Day festival, and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations for a war mother's group. Before her death in 1948, Jarvis is said to have confessed that she regretted ever starting the mother's day tradition.

Despite Jarvis's misgivings, Mother's Day has flourished in the United States. In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out, and telephone lines record their highest traffic, as sons and daughters everywhere take advantage of this day to honor and to express appreciation of their mothers

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