Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy American Mother's Day

Mother_Day

The western (started in America) Mother's Day holiday was created by Anna Jarvis, as a day to honor mothers and motherhood; especially within the context of families, and family relationships. On May 12, 1907, two years after her mother's death, she held a memorial to her mother and thereafter embarked upon a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday. She succeeded in making this nationally recognized in 1914. The International Mother's Day Shrine was established in Grafton to commemorate her accomplishment.

Today I was asked another funny question. Do you have Mother's Day in Iran? Excuse me, but when someone asks like this, it implies that he/she is not sure if such a day exists in Iran. Of course it exists, but it's not today. We have our own Mother's Day. It used to be on 25 Azar (December 16) before the revolution but today's Mother's day in Iran is on Prophet Mohammad's daughter, Fatima, Birthday in Islamic Lunar Calender. This year the Mother's Day will be on June, 14 and the Father's Day will be on July, 6. It is worth to mention that Mother's Day in Iran is also the Woman's Day. So a woman should not only be a mother to be honored, but being a woman seems to be enough.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers (and also to all potential mothers) in the world from the east to the west. Well, I will congratulate my mom later on June 14.

5 comments:

Ann said...

Interesting, didn't know the background, always thought it was a purely commercial event (different to the English Mothering Sunday) developed to increase the sale of greeting cards. I also would have asked whether it existed in Iran.

Unknown said...

Very interesting article how mother's day was created. But the occassion is very important to any child.

Dina said...

Nice statue and history.
My country used to have Mothers Day but unfortunately it was changed into Family Day.

Anonymous said...

From your own description what you celebrate in Iran is woman's day. Here it's the day is specifically for mother's.

Meead said...

Thank you all for your comments.

PasadenaAdjacent, no, don't take it wrong. It depends. In Iran, sons and daughters celebrate the day for their moms and give gifts to their moms and grandmoms and Dads celebrate it as Women's day and give gifts to their wives. Even boyfriends give gifts to their girlfriends although they have not become mom yet. The day called "Mother's Day" among people but not nesseccarily only mothers are honored. Womens who are not yet mothers are also honered. We assume they are also mothers (potential mothers).