MOTHERHOOD IS termed as the greatest gift of God to mankind and the Creation will ever be indebted to its “Mother”. The words “mother hood” symbolises love and kindness, patience, sacrifice, tenderness and many other human behavioural expressions in the human nature. It can be rightly said that these words could never have been in the dictionary without “Mother Hood”.

The modern Mother’s Day, being celebrated on May 12 in the most parts of the world, was created by Anna Jarvis as a day for each family to honour its mother. It is now celebrated on various days in many places around the world. The Mother’s Day complements Father’s Day, the celebration in honour of the world’s fathers. Jarvis, the founder, was born in the tiny town of Webster in Taylor County, West Virginia.

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 day in 1914. The International Mother’s Day Shrine was established in Grafton to commemorate her accomplishment.

Nine years after the first official Mother’s Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become and spent all her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting what she saw as an ‘abuse’ of the celebration .

The day should not be confused with the early Christian traditions honouring mothers, or with the 16th century celebration of Mothering Sunday, which is also known as Mother’s Day in the UK.

It can truly be stated that Mother’s Day is based on International Women’s Day which is celebrated the world over on March 8 every year. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women. Russia celebrates it with great fervour, pomp and show.

Mother’s Day is celebrated on different days throughout the world. The extent of the celebrations greatly varies. In some countries, it is potentially offensive to one’s mother not to mark Mother’s Day. In others, it is a little-known festival celebrated mainly by immigrants, or covered by the media for different reason.

A religious festival celebrating motherhood has been existent in Europe since approximately 250 BC when the Romans honoured the mother goddess Cybele during mid-March.

In India it has its own significance. There is an interesting legend behind it. In ancient times, Lord Krishna’s mother Devaki walked out of her house for sight-seeing. She visited many places but got delayed in returning to her house. Consequently, Lord Krishna became very unhappy. So he went out in her search at many places without any success. Finally, when he reached at “Mata Tirtha Kunda”, he happened to see his mother bathing there in the spouts of that pond. Lord Krishna was very delighted to find her there and narrated all of his tragedies in the absence of his mother.

Mother Devaki said to Lord Krishna, “Oh! Son Krishna, let this place be the pious rendezvous of children to meet their departed mothers”. So, according to the legend, this place has become a noted holy pilgrimage to see back a devotees’ deceased mother. Also, it is believed that a devotee saw his mother’s image inside the pond and he happened to die falling there.

So, the place has a pond still there, fenced by iron rods. After the worship the pilgrimage enjoy there singing and dancing throughout the day in the festive mood. There is no evidence in support of this legend as these stories come from our elders.

 Happy Mother’s Day!