If you live in Spain but are not Spanish, there is always the problem of whether to celebrate your own country’s traditions or to embrace the ones where you live. Christmas Day is a great example as most people I know still have their turkey and presents on 25th December, but for the Spanish, the 6th January or Three Kings Day is when everyone exchanges gifts. Mother’s and Father’s day is another good decision breaker and I am very lucky as I have two Mother’s Days. My daughter, who lives in England, celebrates the English Mother’s Day which, this year, was on March 18th and my son, who lives near me here in Spain, uses the Spanish Mothering Sunday which this year is on the 6th May, as in Spain it’s always the first Sunday of May.

Some special days are the same around the world like New Year’s Eve and some are the same dates. but celebrated differently like Easter. Other days like Mother’s Day are celebrated much the same around the world but on different dates. However, some countries have two days; Mothering Sunday and Mother’s Day. Spain is one country that celebrates both, with the second date being the 8th December, which is also known as the feast of Immaculate Conception Day, when not only mums in the family are honoured but also Mary, mother of Jesus.

Of course, we all want to say thanks to our mothers in some special way, but how did it become a special day celebrated around world? We know that Ancient Greeks celebrated a holiday in honor of Rhea, the mother of the gods, with honey-cakes and fine drinks and flowers at dawn. A bit like breakfast in bed! Also Ancient Romans celebrated a holiday in honor of Cybele, a mother goddess, between 22 – 25th March. The celebrations were notorious enough that followers of Cybele were, in the end, banished from Rome. In the British Isles the goddess Brigid and later her successor Saint Brigid, were honoured with a spring day Mother’s Day which was connected with the first milk of the ewes. In the 17th/18th Centuries in England, apprentices and servants who lived at their jobs, where allowed to return home for the day to visit their families bringing with them a mothering cake (a kind of fruit cake) or fruit filled pastry known as simnel. They were also allowed to pick flowers from the master’s land to take home to their mothers. The family would then sit down to a family meal of furmety which was a sweetened boiled cereal dish. By the 19th century the holiday had completely died out and only returned after the servicemen from America brought the custom back during World War II.

In America several people had tried to propagate a day in honour of mothers and motherhood, but Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion in 1872. She then held an annual Mother’s Day meeting in Boston on the 2nd June for several years, drawing attention to mothers left alone without their husbands and sons during war times. Anna Jarvis started a national campaign in 1904 for the observance of Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May (her own mother’s birthday and introduced the custom of wearing a carnation (her mother’s favourite flower). Anna had hoped for a day of reflection and quiet prayer by families but instead ended up filing a lawsuit in an effort to stop the over–commercialisation of the day, which she unfortunately lost. I wonder what she would think today! It wasn’t until 1914 that President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution jointly with congress, recommending the observance of Mother’s Day and the very next year he proclaimed it an annual national holiday. Mothering Sunday in Great Britain originally centred around the church, as most traditions did. Celebrated on the fourth Sunday in lent, children would pick violets or other wild flowers to take to church and give to their mothers. Sometimes a cake would be brought to help with the celebrations. In most other countries, Mother’s Day is a new concept copied from western civilization. In many African countries, the idea was copied directly from the British and in most of East Asia, it is heavily marketed and copied straight from Mother’s Day in the USA. Places like Australia, Belgium, Canada, Japan and Italy use the same second Sunday in May, but places like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain always celebrate Mother’s Day on the 10th May, whatever the day of the week. Mexico and South America also always celebrate it on the 10th May and this day is the largest card-sending occasion for Hispanics. However, Argentina use the second Sunday in October, South Africa the first Sunday in May. Norway celebrates Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in February and Lebanon use the first day of Spring. France hold their Mother’s Day on the last Sunday in May, except if it coincides with Pentecost Day, in which case it will be moved to the first Sunday in June. A special family meal is held and a cake is baked in the shape of a bouquet of flowers and presented to all Mothers at the table. Yugoslavia hold something called Children’s Day in early December when parents tie up their children and refuse to release them until they are good. On the following Sunday the children tie up their mothers, releasing them only when they have paid them with sweets and other goodies. On the third Sunday, known as Father’s Day, the children tie up their Fathers and they are released only when they have promised coats, shoes or other expensive items. These usually appear a short time later as Christmas presents! In Ethiopia there is no fixed date for Mother’s Day because it occurs when the rainy season ends, sometime in October or November. Girls and Boys come home from all over to visit their mothers bringing the ingredients for a meat hash, which their mothers then prepare. The mothers and girls anoint themselves with butter, and songs celebrating family and tribal heroes are sung. The entire festival lasts two to three days and is a great celebration of mothers. In Thailand, Mother’s Day falls on 12th August of every year which is Queen Sirkit’s birthday and also a national holiday. National flags and street decorations are put up to mark the event and the Queen herself makes a pubic appearance with a special speech in the evening. The normal cards, gifts and special treats are given to mothers in just the same way as elsewhere around the world.

When we think of mothers there are probably two famous ones that spring to mind. The first one is in the bible; Eve is credited with being ‘the mother of all living’. The other one is Mother Teresa (1910-1997) who proved that you don’t need to give birth to be called mother. She loved India so much she decided to make it her home. She became an independent nun and opened a congregation called ‘missionaries of charily’ in Kolkata. Mother Teresa lived her life with the sick, poor and orphaned and was a true picture of devotion and love.

So across the world mothers have their special day and florists rub their hands together as this is the biggest flower selling occasion of the year. 35% of all adults buy flowers for their mothers or for their children to give to their mothers. White carnations were chosen in America because they represented the sweetness, purity and endurance of mother love. Over time, pink and red carnations became the symbol of a living mother with white ones signifying those who had passed on. As well as buying flowers, recent years have seen a huge increase in taking our mothers out for a meal.

According to National Restaurant Association, Mother’s Day is the most popular day of the year to dine out in America and Great Britain. In fact, if you own a restaurant and it’s not full on Mothering Sunday, then you would want to know why. Mothers everywhere are recognised either on Mother’s Day or Mothering Sunday around the world, maybe on different days and slightly different ways, but the feeling is always the same. We want to show our appreciation. I saw a saying once that summed it up for me ‘A mother holds her children’s hands for a few short years but she holds them in her heart for ever’. But the final words should come from an Irish proverb I recently read; A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best but his mother the longest.

Happy Mothering Sunday on May 6th.