New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
| Color of the day: Gold
Incense of the day: Basil In the seventh century in Britain, servants and apprentices were given the fourth Sunday of Lent off to visit their mothers. This came to be known as mothering Sunday. It was traditional on this day to bring spice cake to your mother. In the nineteenth century, the practice died out, but in the same century in the United States, Anna Reeves Jarvis helped to found a holiday called Mother's Work Day, which promoted her ideas about the importance of sanitation and about a woman's role in this virtuous activity. In 1872, meanwhile, Julia Ward Howe worked to mobilize women in the movement for world peace. She proclaimed June 2 Mother's Day for Peace, and the holiday was observed with annual demonstrations in a handful of American cities for the next thirty-odd years. In 1914, the daughter of Anna Reeves Jarvis, Anna Jarvis, convinced President Wilson and the United States Congress to proclaim Mother's Day a national holiday. In her lifetime the holiday spread to forty other countries. In Spain, the day occurred on December 8, also the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This connection with the Christian goddess points out what is ancient and magical about this holiday. The ancient Greeks also held a festival to honor the mother goddess Rhea; the Romans had festivals for Cybele, and the Celts for Brigit. Besides bringing flowers to your mother today, put some out, along with candles of green, blue, white, and red, for the goddess. |
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