Mothers are goddesses. It’s common knowledge. The nurturers. The givers of life. To be celebrated and honored.
To the ancient ones, there was just something about spring and mothers that equaled FESTIVAL! Dancers, musicians, singers, food, costumes. Maybe a sacrificial slaughter in honor of a mythical goddess like Egypt’s Isis or the Greco-Roman deity, Cybele, the great mother of all. These maternal goddesses were not just nurturers and the givers of life, they were symbols of powerful female forces in the universe. Even the early Christians honored the Virgin Mary with a festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
Spring and mothers and festivals. I see a pattern here.
Which brings me to 12-year old Anna Jarvis, Webster, Virginia, 1876, listening to her mother’s prayer after a lesson on ‘Mother’s of the Bible’. “I hope that someone, sometime will found a memorial mothers day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.” Anna Jarvis never forgot her mother’s prayer and, at her mother’s gravesite, vowed “… by the grace of God, you shall have that Mothers Day”(cue music).
Anna was not kidding. Her Mother’s Day campaign started in 1905 at her local Methodist church and she didn’t stop until, in 1914, President Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as the official American national holiday we all know and love.
Mother’s Day 2015. Americans who love their mothers and their mothering friends, sisters, neighbors, grandmothers, and those who have “been like a mother-to-me”, are projected to spend $21.2 BILLION DOLLARS on flowers, cards, gifts and … brunch.
$21.2 BILLION DOLLARS. A stack of just one billion one dollar bills measures 67.9 miles. Multiply that by 21.2 billion and you’ve got a stack of one dollar bills 1439.48 miles high.
$21.2 BILLION DOLLARS. That’s about 210,000 new Tesla Roadsters.
$21.2 BILLION DOLLARS. That’s almost 9 billion gallons of gas.
As a mother, with a mother, who knows so many wonderful mothers, I feel I can speak for us all.
Where’s my festival!
vivinolavita 