"She is Entitled to It," Mothers Day 2022

“I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.”  - Mother Jarvis 

For us at Michael Gabriels, we have a lot to say about diamonds that grow in labs. That being said, we have no hesitation in acknowledging the Diamonds that grew each one of us. Mother's day is coming up next Sunday, and we would be remiss in so many ways if we made no acknowledgment of that. 

So firstly and foremostly!!!! Thank You, Mothers! Thank you for all the hard work you put into bringing us into this world and raising us! Thank you for the love, the affection, and the support!

Mothers have been, as they should be, celebrated all over the world throughout human history. It seems natural that a society that would claim to call itself civilized would celebrate them at least once a year. After all, mothers have the hardest job in the world. 

The universal conception of mothers as “bringers of life,”  has found expression as divine throughout history and for most of the world's religions and cultures. While these have changed with the flux and flow of time, some still exist.  In India, at least one very ancient celebration has survived.

Called Durga Puja, it is the ancient Hindu festival celebrating the supreme mother goddess Durga, and remains an important 10-day celebration in India and for Hindu’s around the world. 

For many countries in Europe, Mothers’ days can trace its roots to the medieval “Mothering Day” on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in the Christian liturgical month of Lent. On this day when lenten fasts were broken, land-bound peasants - serfs-  were released from their bonds and allowed to return to their “mothering” church where they received baptism, and to visit their family. By the 1600s Mothering Day was being celebrated in honor and appreciation of mothers, and many societies began developing special ways to celebrate.

A 15th-century English tradition of serving simnel cake on Mothering Day survives to this day.

In Ethiopia, the ancient “Antrosht” is a 3-day celebration of mothers, on which a special hash and punch are prepared during the family’s gathering. 

In America, Mothers’ Day is derived from the efforts of three women, each with a different view of why the holiday was necessary and how it should be celebrated. 

“Mother Jarvis” - Ann Reeves Jarvis began a life dedicated to helping others as a young Appalachian homemaker, teaching Sunday school classes and organizing “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” where she helped teach young mothers to care safely for their children, and to promote more sanitary living conditions. Living near the borderline between the Union and Confederate states during the Civil War, she encouraged women on both sides to help each other regardless of which side their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons had chosen. Afterward, she proposed a “Mothers’ Friendship Day to promote peace between families and neighbors that had, though close in proximity, supported different sides during the war. She is reported to have once said, “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.”

The second woman in American history known to have called for a “Mother’s Day,” is the famous American poet Julia Ward Howe. Author of “Battle Hyme of the Republic,” early women's rights activist, suffragette, and pacifist, she wrote a “Mothers’ Day Proclamation,” in 1870 calling for, “a general congress of women without limit of nationality… to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.” Howe’s Mothers’ Day celebration was held in Boston and other cities for almost 30 years but was largely abandoned by the time another version of Mothers’ Day was becoming a Bonafede National Holiday. 

It was Mother Jarvis’s daughter, Anna, who would create the idea and momentum for the Mothers Day we are about to celebrate in America on May 8th. Anna Jarvis wanted to memorialize the tremendous work her mother had done in the post civil war era to heal the many hearts, minds, bodies, and groups of people devastated by that conflict.

In May of 1907, two years after her mother's death, she organized the first modern Mothers’ Day. By 1914, after it was being regularly celebrated in almost every state for years, Woodrow Wilson signed it into permanence on the register of national holidays. In an ironic twist, Anna Jarvis, who herself had no children, originally wanted the day commemorated with the wearing of carnations- white in memory of deceased mothers and red or pink in recognition of living ones. However, this soon turned into a commercialization spree that has lasted to this day, and which Anna Jarvis spent the rest of her life combatting. 

While some countries adopted an American Mothers Day, the widespread recognition of the importance of mothers as the bringers and bearers of life into this world, and often the primary caregiver, meaning that many countries have their own tradition of Mothers Day independent of the US and with their own traditional observances. 

That being said, there are some common themes- maybe because moms generally relish the same things, regardless of where they are coming from. So it's no surprise that throughout the world, Mothers’ Days are often celebrated by giving mom a break. Children cook meals and do chores, or take their moms out for scrumptious meals and entertainment. It is almost universally a day of gathering together of families whenever possible, lavish meals, and often special gifts for mothers. 

In many countries, flowers and cards are given, and children write poetry, stories, letters, or plays in appreciation of all the hard work and sacrifice their mothers have gone through. Diamond jewelry has become more and more common as a Mothers’ Day gift in recent years.  Necklaces and earrings are the most popular gifts, but don’t take the tennis bracelet off the table- it's more popular and accessible than ever. 

So how will you say “Thanks Mom, for everything,” this coming Mother’s Day?