A Mother's Day Gift

Mother’s Day is always celebrated the second Sunday in May in Canada. This year it will be on May 13th. On this day we honor our mother or other person who brought us up. At our house we like to make it a family time getting together to make it a special day for Mother, Grandmother and Great-grandmother.

The first Mother’s Day started during the spring celebrations in ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. Then England celebrated ‘Mothering Sunday’ in the 1600’s. The working poor often worked as servants for the rich and lived in the homes of their employers. On ‘Mothering Sunday’, celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent, the servants were allowed to visit their mothers.

In 1870 Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation in Boston in the USA. It was actually a protest by the mothers whose sons had died during the Civil War; a call for peace and disarmament.

A Mother’s Day observance was held during a church service honoring Mrs. Anna Reese Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 10, 1908. She was unmarried and very close to her mother. She believed children often neglect their moms while they were still alive and wanted a special day to focus on showing respect for the whole family while strengthening family bonds. She supplied white carnations at the service because that had been her mother’s favorite flower. The carnation represented the sweetness, purity and endurance of mother love.

In May, 1913, the House of Representatives passed a resolution saying the President and all the officials of the federal government had to wear a white carnation on Mother’s Day. Later red carnations became the color to wear for a living mother and white to show that one’s mother had died. On May 8, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed the resolution for having a dedicated Mother’s Day.

Following is a simple, but very meaningful gift for children to make for their mother on Mother’s Day. Of course, if you're a mother reading this article, you will want to share it with your child’s father or other caregiver as a hint for your Mother’s Day gift.

Make a Book: “All About Mom”

Spend some time with your child asking her questions like: What is a mother? What does she do? What is the best thing she does? What do you like doing with her? Add other meaningful questions of your own.

Help your child print these questions out on white paper and illustrate them. If the child is too young to print, do it for her. Help her make a construction paper cover on which she can draw a picture of mom. Help the child staple the pages together to make a book, or punch holes and tie the pages together with a brightly colored ribbon.
Happy Mother’s Day!

Ruth Willms is author of the Christian children's novel The Lion Tree and is co-owner of WAHM-Articles.com. Submit your best WAHM articles at www.WAHM-Articles.com and find high quality reprint WAHM articles for your publications.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

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