Mother's Day: Its History, Origin, Celebration, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose
Susan Tracy Rice
eBook
(, May 8, 2010)
This volume was published in 1915. A summary from the book's Introduction: The arrival of this newcomer, Mothers' Day, in the calendar of our national festivals is significant. That a day so rich in sentiment, so tender in its meaning, should be officially adopted in a country which scoffs at sentiment and prides itself on its veneer of practical- ity is a hopeful sign. Like the divining rod of old usage it reveals underneath the crust of commercial- ism a perennial spring of idealism. Although the formal designation of a specific day as Mothers' Day was but recently made in this country, we find in turning the pages of history that the idea rests, like so many of our customs, upon an ancient foundation. It strikes deep roots into universal truth and emotion. Mother-love antedates the Christian re- ligion. Mother-worship, with its own rites and cere- monies, reaches back into pagan times. Our earliest record of formal mother-worship is in the stories of the ceremonies by which Cybele, or Rhea, " The Great Mother of the Gods," was worshiped in Asia Minor. In her worship it was the power and majesty of motherhood rather than its tender maternal spirit that the wild dances and wilder music celebrated. Cybele was represented as traversing the mountains in a chariot drawn by lions. The lion, the oak and the pine were sacred to her. The worship of this superlative " Mother of Gods " was introduced through Greece into Rome about two hundred and fifty years before Christ. There, it was known as the festival of Hilaria and was held on the Ides of March when the people made offerings in the temple. These were, of course, confiscated by the priests but they served their purpose of elevating moth- erhood into something of its rightful dignity. With the advent of Christianity, the festival, still keeping some of its old forms, was informed with a new spirit and transfigured. The old celebration with pagan rites in honor of the " Mother of the Gods " on the Ides of March, grew into a celebration in honor of the " Mother Church." It became the custom on Mid- Lent Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent, for the faith- ful to visit the church in which they were baptized and brought up, — bearing gifts for the altar. Just when and how this festival of worship for the " Mother Church " gave rise to the observance of " Mothering Sunday " is uncertain. It is sure, how- ever, that a long time ago when young men and maidens were bound out as apprentices and servants, Mid-Lent Sunday was set apart for them to visit their parents. It is a far cry from these quaint English observ- ances of Mid-Lent to our new American festival. We cannot claim for Mothers' Day an unbroken line of descent from the old holiday when English apprentices went " a-mothering." This latest festival of ours is perhaps the most conscious and deliberate effort a na- tion ever made publicly to honor motherhood and all that it implies. If the swiftly growing popularity of Mothers' Day shall help to restrain the present tendency towards filial disrespect its emblem, the white carnation, will come to be reverenced as one of the most precious of our national flowers.