What Does Mother’s Day Mean To You?
evawhite on May 12th, 2008
Mothers’ day has come and gone (it was last Sunday, if it escaped you completely), did you observe it? Did you give a thought to why this day was instituted in the first place? What does mother’s day mean to you?
Last Sunday was the hundredth anniversary of Mother’s day (it was instituted and first celebrated in May 1908) and while it is still celebrated, I feel it has lost much of its original significance and meaning. It was the decade long, tireless efforts of Anna Jarvis due to which the second Sunday of every May is celebrated as Mother’s day. What originally was initiated as a way to show our mothers how much we as their children value their devotion and sacrifice, and how we appreciate the “truth, purity and broad charity of mother love”, now appears to have lost some of its original significance, and has been somewhat derailed by commercialism and quick-fix gifts and greetings. While Anna Jarvis originally visualized simple gestures such as a single white carnation and a heartfelt letter, now Mother’s day has become rather different.
Mind though I am not saying it has changed in a bad way; it has merely changed in a way that reflects the times that we live it. With the internet giving you the incredible convenience of being able to simply send your mother an ecard, or finding a nice gift over the internet (perhaps at a discount) and having it shipped to your mother without having to bother to go and deliver it personally, Mother’s day has simply evolved to echo the times we live in.
Also the lives that we now lead are such that it is not possible to observe mother’s day in the spirit that it was meant to be. Ideally we should be able to take time out and perhaps visit our mothers on the day or at least write her a heartfelt, sincere letter of appreciation. However busy lives and distances do make these things difficult. If therefore I sent my mother a nice card with some lines hand-written inside along with say a book that I thought she may enjoy and spoke to her at length over the phone, I think I conveyed my appreciation of her in the best way possible for me, I think that I made her day somewhat better and I think that I celebrated Mother’s Day in the best possible manner for me. Did you celebrate Mothers’ day? If you did what was it that you did?
