Regardless of which culture you belong to or which country you’ve grown up in, one truth transcends familial concepts: that mothers or mother figures remain to be some of the most dedicated and nurturing family members. Whether you have a biological or adoptive mother, your bond with her is unquestionable and unbreakable. It is for this reason that Mother’s Day in the Philippines – and other countries – is a day of reverence and celebration, reserved solely for these strong women. This Mother’s Day, we aim to provide you with the history and the reason why Mother’s Day is a worthwhile event to celebrate for the mother figures in our lives.
How Did Mothers’ Day Start?
Countless cultures all over the world have celebrated special occasions to honor mothers – with some even dating back to the 4th Century BC when the Ancient Greeks and Romans celebrated festivals to honor the mother goddesses, Rhea and Cybele. These were often marked with days’ worth of joyous celebrations and parades. While these were technically not celebrated for mothers in general, these celebrations may have worked as a precursor to what we now celebrate as the present-day Mother’s Day.
As far as origins go, the most solid documentation of the first Mother’s Day was in 1908, with Anna Jarvis, the daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis, who sought to host a celebration to thank mothers everywhere for all they do. She held the Mother’s Day celebration in a Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, with financial backing from Philadelphia retail owner John Wanamaker. Thousands also congregated in Philadelphia at Wanamaker’s retail store for a Mother’s Day celebration of their own.
After Jarvis successfully held her first Mother’s Day, she sought to make it a national celebration. After years of lobbying, she finally got the attention of President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. He proclaimed that the second Sunday in May, no matter what the date, would belong to moms across the nation.
Mothers’ Day in the Philippines: Why Is It Celebrated?
While most Filipinos have been celebrating Mother’s Day for years – some don’t even remember a time when it wasn’t celebrated – you may be wondering why exactly Filipinos celebrate this annual event. This all boils down to the Filipino’s family-oriented beliefs. In the Filipino Culture, the importance of mothers cannot be easily overlooked, especially with laws and legislation passed specifically to protect and support mothers during child rearing.
On Mother’s Day, Filipinos pay homage to the women responsible for raising them into the people they are today. From teaching us our most basic skills to teaching us what it means to be good human beings, mothers have always been there for us throughout our lives. To honor them on this special day, it is common for Filipinos to gather with their mothers to express their love and gratitude for everything that they have done for them over the years – whether by cooking a sumptuous meal or by simply spending time with them amidst our busy schedules.
In fact, various Filipino organizations, and companies design campaigns and even events to pay tribute to the various sacrifices that Filipino mothers have been doing since time immemorial. These include ideas for safety, care, and security models for various industries and even various spots and TV specials that show just how important the roles of mothers are.
Mothers in the Philippines Still Take on More Responsibility
If you still don’t have enough reason why Mother’s Day is celebrated, studies now show that Filipino mothers are more dedicated – up to a fault – than we can even anticipate. Whether it’s because of the innate caring attitude of mothers or their sheer dedication to their families, Filipino mothers today are still known to take on the brunt of doing chores in Asian countries – even when they’re already working to support their families better financially.
According to a study made by HappyFresh, a Singapore-based grocery delivery service, “On average, 43 percent of working mothers spend at least an hour doing household chores each day. In fact, women (64 percent of the respondents) still pull more weight around the house, although men are starting to pick up the slack.”
For working mothers, HappyFresh said, the most difficult is finding time for children. Working can mean extended hours in the office and missing important milestones in their children’s lives. This is also one of the reasons why mothers have now started evolving into a more digitally knowledgeable group – often called cyber moms – to not only ensure that they’re properly connected to their children even while at work, but also to keep themselves in the loop with the events happening within their household.
This is just one of the many testaments that moms are willing to go the extra mile just to ensure that we’re taken care of, protected, and secure even when we’re miles away from them. So, this Mother’s Day, let’s make sure to do something special for our mothers – whether they are still with us or not. After all, it’s not every day that we can thank the people who have given us life and raised us to be the people we are today.
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Giving flowers on Mother’s Day as a way to honor your mom, mama, inay or nanay.
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