CELEBRATE YOUR MUM!
In life where almost everything is uncertain, there’s one person that you can always rely on – your mum
Mother’s Day as we know it today is celebrated across 46 countries on various dates, with millions of people taking the opportunity to thank their mums for raising them and being there to support them.
She’s been there for you from the very beginning, through the good times and the bad, and if there’s one day that mums deserve credit for, it’s Mother’s Day.
Although gifts are always welcome, this Mother’s Day why not also give your mum something that money can’t buy – your time? Go for a walk together to admire the emerging snowdrops and daffodils, take her out for lunch, or simply get the family together for a Sunday celebration!
Celebrations of motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honour of the mother goddesses.
The Greeks used the occasion to honour Rhea, the wife of Cronus and the mother of many deities in Greek mythology. Ancient Romans too celebrated a spring festival, called Hilaria, dedicated to Cybele, a mother goddess. The three-day celebration, on the Ides of March, involved making offerings in the temple of Cybele, and included parades, games and masquerades.
In England the tradition dates back to the 17th century, when Mothering Sunday was celebrated in honour of the Virgin Mary. After a prayer service in church, children would bring gifts and flowers to pay tribute to their own mothers.
It became an official holiday for domestic servants when Mothering Sunday was a day set aside by wealthy employers and the aristocracy to allow their servants time off work to visit their families and in particular their mothers.
Celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, the servants and apprentices would bake cakes, make gifts and collect flowers as gifts for their mum. Due to its timing, most flowers and plants associated with Mother’s Day are those that bloom in early spring although roses have grown in popularity.
And here is a quirky fact – as we celebrate Mother’s Day this month, it might be worth mentioning that according to a study, women are genetically predisposed to gardening thanks to an evolutionary divergence that had women ‘gathering’ whilst prehistoric men folk ‘hunted’. Women also make the best plant people because they have better colour recall than men and recent research from the RHS has shown that female voices are the best at speeding up growth of tomato plants!
