Epiphanies and memeage

[ihkelele]

I don't care for celebratory days unless they are intended to draw attention upon an underrated theme. So, all's well with AIDS days, water days, books days, and gay days and women's day and whatever other minority day. But "mother", "father" - what do these "days" mean?
Please tell me who's supposed to be celebrated today: someone who's conceived (

Comments

[redskyatnight76]

Mothers' Day in the US has a different origin from Mothers' Day in the UK, in that case, because ours is on a different date and has a different history. It used to be called (and still is called, for the purposes of church services that traditionally take place on that day) Mothering Sunday.

It's always on the fourth Sunday in Lent; apparently, hundreds of years ago, that was the day that was given over to celebrating the Virgin Mary as the mother of Jesus, and after the Church of England was established and we we all got a lot less hung up on the Virgin Mary (more of a Catholic than a Protestant tradition) that Sunday was traditionally the day for celebrating mothers and maternal love generally, and also 'the mother church'.

Despite being an atheist, and descended from about four generations of other atheists, I ended up going to a strict C of E primary school when I was a kid, which is how I know this stuff. I've never actually been to church in my life.

Of course, now it's just an excuse to sell greetings cards and flowers but I gather that C of E churches still have the traditional Mothering Sunday services.

Fathers' Day, however, is merely a gimmick in the interests of equality. And selling more greetings cards.

Now, I'm happy to send my mum some flowers and a nice card on Mothers' Day. I don't see her much because I live 200 miles away, and she's a brilliant mum and deserves to made a fuss of. Likewise Fathers' Day (except he gets whisky or Waterstone's vouchers, not flowers). But it does slightly annoy me - perhaps partly because I haven't got any kids myself - that there is an implication that simply being a mother makes someone more worthy than the next woman. Of course, lots of mothers do a fabulous job and thoroughly deserve to be celebrated. But equally, lots of them are awful, and aren't great mothers at all, or are at best indifferent. Just giving birth to a child doesn't make someone intrinsically special. And I always feel terrible on Mothers' Day for people who have lost their own mothers, or (like my sister) desperately wanted children but couldn't have any.

[ihkelele]

(Back from a long-ish run on various Wiki-articles about Catholic & Anglican liturgy and - guess what? Mother's Day, where I found the diction was trademarked in 19something *g*)
This is quite interesting, in particular as I'd never been aware that a Laetare (Catholic name) Sunday exists. It seems we've been robbed of Cybele's festival. Of course, the Catholic church has tended to restrain Lent to meditation and preparation for the Passion, so it should be basically focussed on the figure of the Christ - for once, seeing as he's usually robbed much of the focus over the rest of the year, by his mother and all the saints ;)

I hear you about the people who are hurt on this occasion.