This Sunday Spain joins to honor mothers, on a holiday that is also celebrated in much of the world. Every year generations and generations take advantage of Mother’s day to remember and express gratitude to all maternal figures for unconditional love they give us daily. But what is the origin of this entrenched tradition?
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The first Sunday of May in Spain, Portugal and even Lithuania. The second in the United States and much of Latin America. More than 40 countries around the world pay tribute to motherhood for a specific day of the month. And, although we do not coincide on dates, we do it in the message that is transmitted annually on Mother’s Day and that has been spreading from generation to generation.
Specifically, already in ancient Greece and other ancient societies the respect and gratitude to the maternal figures was celebrated. Like many other festivities, the origin of Mother’s Day is related to the tribute to the gods. In the case of the Romans to Cibeles, in that of the Egyptians to Isis and the Greeks to Rea, considered the mother of humanity.
The origin of Mother’s Day as we know
Although already in the ancient civilizations a celebration was held at the beginning of spring to honor these women, Mother’s Day as we know it currently would still take several centuries to establish itself. The first key date was December 8, which according to the Christian calendar is the day of the Immaculate Conception.
The commercial holiday known today, however, had its origin in 1865 after the secession war in the United States. It would be then when activist Ann María Reeves would call all women to meet to talk. They would call them meetings of Mother’s Day, encounters of which other activists would dialogue and that came to reach some fame.
42 years later, one of the members of these meetings died tragically, which caused the rest of the mothers to use that day to honor the maternal figure. This was how it was formalized what today’s day is during the second Sunday of May.
Why is it celebrated on another date in Spain?
There are many countries that today celebrate the holiday on the second Sunday of May, although Spain advances the tradition seven days. The truth is that this was not the first date that was formalized. In fact, before the first of May women were also commemorated in October and December.
It was a Valencian official who invented Mother’s Day as currently known in Spain. He did it through the creation of a propaganda brochure where he urged everyone to dedicate an exclusive day to the country’s mothers. And it is that Julio Menéndez García wrote the so -called ‘Mother’s Anthem’, although it was the power of the press that truly promoted the initiative. Thus, on October 4, 1926 this tradition would be held for the first time.
Although it remained during the years, it was with the arrival of Franco to power that the day changed again, this time again to December 8 coinciding with the Christian calendar. His strategy did not work, as other countries had already accepted May as the month of the holiday.
This is how in 1965, on the first Sunday of May it became the day of the official Mother. Now, 60 years later this date continues to charge the same importance as before and continue to honor all mothers for their continued work.
