Mother’s Day: From Goddess to American Commercialism

I was wondering how the mother’s day celebration came about and in my search found information that takes us all the way back to 1500 BC – when it was a celebration of women as goddesses, to the commercialization of it by the good old United States in about 1600!  That about speaks everything about the two differing sides of this world; the way it was and the way it continues.  The other side of the ocean remains much more about the spiritual whereas we here in North America continue on our material quest for satisfaction to the point where even the “holy” days are commercial and have lost all meaning, i.e. “sanity” claus and toys in the holiday called Xmas – which originally was a date determined by a RC pope in the early first century as supposedly a day to celebrate the birth of Yahshua.  How much of its originality can be found in modern day celebrations of xmas?  Not a lot, and the commercial bombardment and advertising starts to prepare us for it in July or August every year…the must have stuff you just have to buy for your kids if you want them to be happy!

Now, back to the topic of mother’s day and when did it all begin.

Goddess Isis – Early Egyptian Roots

One of the earliest historical records of a society celebrating a Mother deity can be found among the ancient Egyptians, who held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis, who was commonly regarded as the Mother of the pharaohs. Her stern, yet handsome head is typically crowned by a pair of bull horns enclosing a fiery sun orb. She is most often depicted sitting on a throne.

So the story goes, after Isis’ brother-husband Osiris was slain and dismembered in 13 pieces by their jealous brother Seth, Isis re-assembled Osiris’ body and used it to impregnate herself. She then gave birth to Horus, whom she was forced to hide amongst the reeds lest he be slaughtered by Seth. Doesn’t this sound very much like the story of the birth of Moshe (Moses) in the Bible/Torah; hidden amongst the reeds so as not to be slaughtered, later becoming a ruler in the house of Pharoah?  Doesn’t this cause you to challenge the authencity of something written in the Bible, which we are taught to reverence, as an absolute truth….and yet, many years before the exact same thing took place?  Horus grew up and defeated Seth, and then became the first ruler of a unified Egypt. Thus Isis earned her stature as the Mother of the pharaohs.

It is also interesting to note that the Mother and Son imagery of Isis and Horus—in which Isis cradles and suckles her son—is strikingly similar to that of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.

Mothering Day in Europe – Family Gatherings With Mom

So, from ancient Egypt and it’s celebration of a mother’s day, let’s journey forward to civilization in Europe. Around 1600 it was the cleric (church) that enlarged this mother’s day celebration to include celebration to include real Mothers, earning the name Mothering Day.  It was called “mothering day” and was meant to give women some reprieve from work during an extremely difficult and poor time in Europe.  Women were given a day off work to enable them to travel home to their villages and towns and spend time with their families.  It was indeed a day of family celebration and the mother was the “guest of honour.”

We’ll now skip forward to the settling of North America.

History of American Celebration

When the first English settlers came to America, they discontinued the tradition of Mothering Day. While the British holiday would live on, the American Mother’s Day would be invented—with an entirely new history—centuries later. One explanation for the settlers’ discontinuation of Mothering Day was that they just didn’t have time; they lived under harsh conditions and were forced to work long hours in order to survive. Another possibility, however, is that Mothering Day conflicted with their Puritan ideals. Fleeing England to practice a more conservative Christianity without being persecuted, the pilgrims ignored the more secular holidays, focusing instead on a no-frills devotion to God. For example, even holidays such as Christmas and Easter were much more somber occasions for the pilgrims, usually taking place in a Church that was stripped of all extraneous ornamentation.

Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamaition of 1870

The first North American Mother’s Day was conceptualized with Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Despite having penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic 12 years earlier, Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War that she called on Mother’s to come together and protest what she saw as the futility of their Sons killing the Sons of other Mothers. With the following, she called for an international Mother’s Day celebrating peace and motherhood:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:

“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of
charity, mercy and patience.

“We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have of ten forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.

Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions.
The great and general interests of peace.

The Rise & Fall of Howe’s Mother’s Day

At one point Howe even proposed converting July 4th into Mother’s Day, in order to dedicate the nation’s anniversary to peace. Eventually, however, June 2nd was designated for the celebration. In 1873 women’s groups in 18 North American cities observed this new Mother’s holiday. Howe initially funded many of these celebrations, but most of them died out once she stopped footing the bill. The city of Boston, however, would continue celebrating Howe’s holiday for 10 more years.

Despite the decided failure of her holiday, Howe had nevertheless planted the seed that would blossom into what we know as Mother’s Day today. A West Virginia women’s group led by Anna Reeves Jarvis began to celebrate an adaptation of Howe’s holiday. In order to re-unite families and neighbors that had been divided between the Union and Confederate sides of the Civil War, the group held a Mother’s Friendship Day.

Ultimately, mother’s day, as all holidays, turned into a commercial enterprise and the woman instrumental in bringing about the changes in the United States died in her battle to rid the celebration of its commercialism.  It was all about big business enterprise and making money off of the special time, the special day.  Since when does spending time with your loved ones, be it your mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son …. depend on spending money?  But, we here in North America, well we’ve made every special day a mockery all about money; how big a present, how much did you spend.  Often times, sadly, there is little or no thought put into the purchasing of a gift, for instance a special moment to tell your mother how much she means to you, how much you appreciate her and all that she has done and been for you.  How many of us have stopped the car at a floral vendor on the side of the road, on the way home from church, to pick up that “oops, last minute, I forgot” bouquet of flowers for mother?

The Fight Over Commercialization

The holiday flourished in the United States and flowers, especially white carnations, became very popular. One business journal, Florists Review, went so far as to print, “This was a holiday that could be exploited.” But the budding commercialization of Mother’s Day greatly disturbed Jarvis, so she vociferously opposed what she perceived as a misuse of the holiday. In 1923 she sued to stop a Mother’s Day event, and in the 1930′s she was arrested for disturbing the peace at the American War Mothers group. She was protesting their sale of flowers. In the 1930’s Jarvis also petitioned against the postage stamp featuring her Mother, a vase of white carnations and the word “Mother’s Day.” Jarvis was able to have the words “Mother’s Day” removed. The flowers remained. In 1938, Time Magazine ran an article about Jarvis’s fight to copyright Mother’s Day, but by then it was already too late to change the commercial trend.

In opposition to the flower industry’s exploitation of the holiday, Jarvis wrote, “What will you do to route charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations?” Despite her efforts, flower sales on Mother’s Day continued to grow. Florist’s Review wrote, “Miss Jarvis was completely squelched.” Anna Jarvis died in 1948, blind, poor and childless. Jarvis would never know that it was, ironically, The Florist’s Exchange that had anonymously paid for her care.

For the writer, if someone is special, I don’t wait for some man appointed set aside day to let them know how special they are to me.  If I am out shopping, for instance, and I see something that sparks or triggers that special person’s memory in me, that reminds me or speaks of them, I will pick it up and then, uncalled for an unexpectedly, and for “no apparent reason” give it to them; just because, just because they are special.

So to all you other mother’s out there, from this mother, let me tell you that you are special and without you….heck there’d be no population.  Sadly to say our absence in the home and presence in the workplace shows just how important and valuable we are to the family, because there are so many kids with “latch key” parents; absent parents who live in the office and visit the home.  We gave birth to the children, they are gifts to us and we to them.  We treasure our mothers and our children; it is a reciprocal thing, for if I didn’t have children then I wouldn’t be this thing called “mother”.

So jointly I say a most happy mother’s and children’s day,
Sending bouquets of flowers, free of charge,
A poem and a rhyme that only cost time,
Love and hugs and spiritual blessings across space
Airwaves filled with peace, making your place
A heavenly, peaceful and joyous space!