Today, all around the world, Mother’s Day is celebrated on different dates and in different ways but always with the same love, because mothers are irreplaceable, aren’t they?
“In 1872 in the United States, the idea of Mother’s Day was suggested by author Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the lyrics of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, as a day dedicated to peace. She was the first person to suggest that America dedicate a day to honor all mothers. However, most people did not take her idea seriously.
Having lost her mother on the second Sunday in May of 1907, an American named Anna M. Jarvis, a schoolteacher by profession, initiated a campaign in her state, Virginia, to celebrate a religious service in honor of all mothers on the second Sunday of the month. The following year, the first Mother’s Day in the form we know today was celebrated in Grafton, Anna Jarvis’s birthplace. Her campaign seemed to move the population, because the practice quickly took hold throughout the rest of Virginia. In 1914, the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, declared the second Sunday in May as an official holiday in honor of all mothers.”
Later, in 1917, American soldiers entering World War I spread this celebration to Europe.”
This is how Mother’s Day was born in France. Originally, this holiday honored mothers of large families. The Mother’s Day in its current form dates exactly from May 25, 1941, when Marshal Pétain officially established “the national day of mothers.”
Un jour, on arrive dans un monde inconnu. Initially, we feel a bit lost among all these giants who grimace at us and speak to us in a language we do not yet understand. We are scared. We cry… But we are quickly reassured by Her.
Her, who gives us our first smile. Her, who offers our first caress. Her, still who gives us our first pleasure. Her, always who delivers our first tenderness. We know we can count on Her.
She teaches us cleanliness, she teaches us to talk, walk, eat… live in this world that She once navigated. She guides us, advises us, builds us, cherishes us and consoles us. Sometimes, She reprimands us, punishes us for our own good, but we don’t always understand that.
Then one day, we say “Goodbye” because we believe we are no longer children. We think her arms are no longer enough for the game of feelings. We simply believe ourselves “Grown Up” and that nothing will be the same.
Then comes the time of storms and disappointed loves, and we go crying like a child in her arms that She has always held out. She finds reassuring words, the words She whispered to us at night when we were little. And then, we tell her we need Her, that our lives without Her would be impossible, that her arms are still large enough to hide our tears, our loneliness.
And when in our turn, we have navigated our life, built our family, we come occasionally to kiss her on a Sunday or New Year’s Day. We regret not being able to spend more time with Her. We stroke her white hair, to us she is as beautiful as before. We tell her that She has not aged, that she remains the sole love of our life, and, though we may not have said it often, we have always loved her.
And if this weekend, the calendar informs us that it is her holiday, I say we do not need a special day to say “I love you” or to show her our love. Why wait for that date? One day, we might regret not having said it earlier.
So today, I write it to you as I did when I was a child: “Mom, I love you.”
We invite you to leave your personalized messages dedicated to your Mothers because the most beautiful gift that a child can give is their Love.
