CELEBRATING MOTHERS DAY

How would you know whether you are a mother or not?

Well, you Know You’re a Mother When….

1. You count the sprinkles on each kid’s cupcake to make sure they’re equal.
2. You have the time to shave only one leg at a time.
3. You hide in the bathroom to be alone.
4. Your kid throws up and you catch it.
5. Some one else’s kid throws up at a party. You keep eating.
6. You consider finger paints to be a controlled substance.
7. You’ve mastered the art of placing large quantities of pancakes and eggs on a plate without anything touching.
8. Your child insists that you read “Once Upon a Potty” out loud in the lobby of Grand Central Station and you do it.
9. You cling to the high moral ground on toy weapons, your child chews his toast into the shape of a gun.
10. You hope ketchup is a vegetable, since it’s the only way your child eats.
11. You can’t bear the thought of your son’s first girlfriend.
12. You hate the thought of his wife even more.
13. You find yourself cutting your husbands’ sandwiches into cute shapes.
14. You can’t bear to give away baby clothes – it’s so final.
15. You hear your mother’s voice coming out of your mouth when you say,  “NOT in your good clothes!”
16. You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you.
17. You donate to charities in the hope that your child won’t get that disease.
18. You hire a sitter because you haven’t been out with your husband in ages, then spend half the night checking on the kids.
19. You use your own saliva to clean your child’s face.
20. You say at least once a day, “I’m not cut out for this job”, but you know you wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Motherhood. And this is why having one day a year paying tribute to mothers may be a noteworthy thing to do but it is my belief and conviction that mothers deserve more credit than that.

First, let me tell you how Mother’s Day got started,

The earliest Mother’s Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 1600’s, England celebrated a day called “Mothering Sunday”. Celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter*), “Mothering Sunday”honored the mothers of England.

During this time many of the England’s poor worked as servants for the wealthy. As most jobs were located far from their homes, the servants would live at the houses of their employers. On Mothering Sunday the servants would have the day off and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A special cake, called the mothering cake, was often brought along to provide a festive touch. As Christianity spread throughout Europe the celebration changed to honor the “Mother Church” – the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm. Over time the church festival blended with the Mothering Sunday celebration . People began honoring their mothers as well as the church.

In the United States Mother’s Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic) as a day dedicated to peace. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother’s Day meetings in Boston, Mass ever year. In 1907 Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother’s church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother’s Day on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year Mother’s Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.

Ms. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessman, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother’s Day. It was successful as by 1911 Mother’s Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother’s Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May. While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother’s Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which also celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May. And of course here in our own country, we became conscious of Mother’s Day because Department stores and shopping malls remind us always.

May I make  suggestion? That we honor the many mothers who are working as overseas Filipino workers sacrificing themselves for their families this time?

The Bible says: Honor your father and your mother and on this special occasion it would be good to also remember the gallantry, nobility and the sacrifice Filipino mothers all over the world are doing for their families.

One proverb says it best: That one mother can take care of ten children, but ten children can’t take care of one mother.