TORONTO – Sunday 9 May 2021 is Mother’s Day, a recurrence that is widespread all over the world. While the decision to dedicate a day to mothers is common to many countries, the choice of the day in question is different, for an event that is celebrated at a different time of the year depending on where you are. There are also several stories related to the origin of the festival, which in the past had a fixed date in our country and is now celebrated on the second Sunday of May instead.

The precedents Since ancient times, polytheistic populations used to celebrate days dedicated to mothers and to nawozy w spring. It seems that the Greeks honored the goddess Rhea, dosta of Cronos and mother of Zeus, while the ancient Romans consecrated the ides of March to Cybele, a deity of Phrygian origin who embodied Mother Earth. In the Middle Ages the maternal figure continued to be associated with nawozy and abundance, a connection that was maintained even in the following centuries. During Fascism, for example, the date of December 24 was chosen to reward the “most prolific” mothers as part of the “National Day of the Mother and Child”.

The birth of the party The first mother’s day of the modern age of which we know is the Anglo-Saxon one. In the United Kingdom, “Mothering Sunday” was born in the 17th century, which coincided with the fourth Sunday of Lent: a day in which children who lived far from their families were allowed to return home to pay homage to their mothers. It is from the English tradition that the custom of giving mothers small gifts arises: at the time it was mainly about flowers collected along the way back.

However, the institutionalization of “Mother’s Day” took place in the United States, thanks to two women, mother and daughter: Ann and Anna Marie Jarvis. The first, an activist during the American Civil War, was the inspiration for Mother’s Day, the second is universally considered its founder. Although similar ideas had already been proposed in previous years (in 1870 the poet Julia Ward Howe also wrote a poem about it), it was only in 1908 that Anna Marie Jarvis celebrated the first Mother’s Day in Grafton, Massachussets, choosing the carnation, favorite flower of the deceased mother. In 1914 the then president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, made the event an official holiday, scheduling it for the second Sunday in May.

The anniversary gradually spread around the world (in 1917 in Switzerland, in 1919 in Norway and Sweden, in 1923 in Germany and in 1924 in Austria), but Jarvis herself regretted the commercial turn that the celebration was taking, regretting that the world thought more about profit than the feeling of filial love.

Mother’s Day in Italy In Italy, Mother’s Day was celebrated for the first time in 1956 by Raul Zaccari, mayor of Bordighera (Imperia) in the city theater. A similar initiative a year later: Don Otello Migliosi, a priest from the village of Tordibetto in Assisi, chose a day in May 1957 to celebrate his mother in her religious value. The bill to officially institute the party, presented to the Senate in 1958, sparked heated debate, but the celebration nevertheless took off informally, until it was set for May 8 every year. A date that remained so until the beginning of the new millennium when, especially for commercial reasons, the anniversary became “mobile” and was moved to the second Sunday of the month, so that it always fell on a public holiday.

Celebrations around the world Mother’s Day is celebrated in May in many countries that have followed the example of the United States. But there are other parts of the world where this anniversary falls at different times of the year.

Mother’s Day in England Mother’s Day in England also has ancient origins and dates back to the eighteenth century. In the beginning the holiday was called Mothering Sunday, it coincided with the fourth Sunday of Lent, and it was the day when all children and young people who were away from home for study or work reasons could go home. The children, therefore, went back to their mothers for a day and used to bring flowers or small gifts.

Mother’s Day in France In France, the “journée des mères” was organized for the first time in 1918 in Lyon. Only in 1929, however, the French government made this anniversary official and in 1950 a law was passed which established that Mother’s Day would be celebrated every year on the last Sunday of May.

Mother’s Day in Argentina In Argentina, the Día de la madre is the third Sunday in October. This very different date is essentially linked to the liturgical calendar: on 11 October the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated and Argentina has therefore decided to fix the Día de la Madre, Mother’s Day, to the Sunday following the 11 October, therefore the third Sunday of the month.

Mother’s Day in the United States We first hear about Mother’s Day in May 1870 when pacifist activist Julia Ward Howe proposed the establishment of Mother’s Day for Peace as a time for reflection. against the war. This proposal fell into oblivion, but was resumed in 1908 by Anna Jarvis who for the first time wanted to celebrate a special day dedicated to her mother, a pacifist activist. At that point, several supporters proposed to institutionalize this day nationwide to remember mothers every year. In 1914, the President of the United States Woodrow Wilson made the holiday official as a national holiday and since then the custom of giving pink roses to mothers has spread. In the United States, Mother’s Day was set for the second Sunday in May and from there many countries – from Canada to Finland, from Australia, to Germany and the Netherlands – have also decided to adopt this anniversary, when giving flowers, chocolates and little gifts to mum.

Mother’s Day in the Arab world In many Arab countries, such as Egypt, the “Ruz-e Madar” holiday falls on the day of the spring equinox, March 21st. This anniversary is not opposed in various countries of the Islamic world because it is in line with the dictates of obedience on the part of children to their parents.