Mother`s Day: How did it start?

Malta and several other countries across the world mark Mother`s Day tomorrow, a commercialised day of sentiment when many mothers receive cards, gifts, and flowers.

The day has been celebrated for years and although early Mother`s Day celebrations were different than today`s, historians believe that the tradition of honouring mothers dates back to ancient cultures in Greece and Rome.

According to information gathered from several sites on the internet, in both cultures, mother goddesses were worshipped during the springtime with religious festivals. The ancient Greeks paid tribute to the powerful goddess Rhea, the wife of Cronus, known as the Mother of the Gods.

Similarly, evidence of a three-day Roman festival in mid-March called Hilaria, to honour the Roman goddess Magna Mater, or Great Mother, dates back to 250 B.C.

A temple on the Palatine hill in Rome was built in honour of the Great Mother, where people go bearing gifts to offer her.

During the 1600s, England celebrated a day called "Mothering Sunday". Celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, it honoured the mothers of England.

As Christianity spread throughout Europe, the celebration changed to honour the "Mother Church". Over time the church festival blended with the Mothering Sunday celebration and people began honouring their mothers as well as the church.

In the United States, Mother`s Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe as a day dedicated to peace.

In 1907 Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother`s Day. She persuaded her mother`s church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother`s Day on the second anniversary of her mother`s death, the second 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, since by 1911 Mother`s Day was celebrated in almost every state. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made the official announcement proclaiming Mother`s Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the second Sunday of May.

Just as most holidays have been exploited by commercialisation, so has Mother`s Day. And during the last years of her life, Anna Jarvis spent much of her fortune trying to end commercialisation of the holiday that she had worked so hard to found.

Despite the fact that her idea had spread all around the world, Jarvis felt discouraged. She had intended Mother`s Day to be a day of sentiment that would increase respect for parents and strengthen family bonds, rather than benefit businesses through profit.

In the United States, churches often hold special services to celebrate Mother`s Day. If people are not able to spend time with their mothers on Mother`s Day, they often call, send cards, give flowers, or buy gifts to thank them for raising and caring for them.

Other people simply give their mothers the gift of time. Helping around the house, making or treating one`s mother to a special meal, and spending the day with one`s mother are all ways that children show their appreciation.

Malta, together with other countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Belgium celebrate Mother`s Day on the second Sunday in May, like the United States.

Many other countries, however, observe Mother`s Day at a different time of year. Although Mother`s Day celebrations around the globe hold the same meaning - honouring one`s mother - several cultures practise traditions that are very different from our own.

In Norway, Mother`s Day is observed on the second Sunday in February, while its neighbour, Sweden, celebrates it on the last Sunday in May. The Swedish Red Cross sells tiny plastic flowers prior to the holiday and uses the profits from the "Mother`s Flowers" to give vacations to mothers with many children.

Like Sweden, France also celebrates the holiday on the last Sunday in May. However, the French treat Mother`s Day much like a family birthday. Extended families often gather together for a special meal after which the mother is presented with a beautiful cake.

Other countries that celebrate Mother`s Day in the springtime are Lebanon, on the first day of spring; South Africa, on the first Sunday in May; and Japan, on the second Sunday in May.

In Japan, children between the ages of six and 14 have the opportunity to honour their mother by entering a drawing of her in an art contest. Every four years, winning drawings are collected for an exhibition called "My Mother" which travels all around the world.

Not only does this project honour mothers everywhere, but it also educates those who look at the pictures by teaching them how children live in other parts of the world.

Both Argentina and India observe Mother`s Day in October. In Argentina, mothers are honoured on the second Sunday of the month, while Hindu people in India celebrate Mother`s Day with a 10-day festival in early October.

This festival is called Durga Puja in honour of Durga, the Divine Mother and most important Hindu goddess in India. According to Hindu legend, the Divine Mother has 10 arms, each of which holds a weapon used to destroy evil.

Mother`s Day is closely linked to the Church in both Spain and Portugal. On December 8, the Spanish and

Portuguese not only honour their mothers, but also attend religious services to worship the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus.

Serbs also celebrate Mother`s Day, called "Materice," in December. Two weeks before Christmas, boys and girls quietly "tie" their mother up while she is still sleeping.

Upon awakening, she gives the children small gifts she has hidden under her pillow in exchange for her "release".