Mother's Day
The Mother's Day is a day to honor the mother and motherhood. It has established itself in the western world since 1914, starting in the United States . In German-speaking countries, the USA and other countries, it is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. In the United Kingdom , on the other hand, the fourth Sunday of Lent is observed as Mother's Day.
history
The origins of Mother's Day can be traced back to the worship rituals of the goddess Rhea in ancient Greece and the Cybele and Attis cults among the Romans.
Mother's Day in its current form was coined in the English and US women's movement. The American Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis tried to found a mother's movement called Mothers Friendships Day in 1865 . At Mothers Day Meetings organized by her , mothers were able to exchange views on current issues. In 1870 Julia Ward Howe started a Mothers Day of Peace initiative under the slogan peace and motherhood . She had the goal that the sons should no longer be sacrificed in wars.
From the 1860s onwards, various women's movements and women's associations emerged in Europe , which, in addition to peace projects and more women's rights, also advocated better educational opportunities for girls . In the 1890s the International Women's Council was founded, which also advocated more recognition for mothers in international women's congresses.
Origin in the United States
However, the methodist Anna Marie Jarvis , the daughter of Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, is considered to be the founder of today's Mother's Day . She held a Memorial Mothers Day meeting in Grafton, West Virginia, USA on May 12, 1907, the Sunday after the second anniversary of her mother's death . The following year, at her urging, a devotional was again dedicated to all the mothers on the second Sunday of May in the Methodist Church in Grafton . She had 500 white carnations distributed to other mothers in front of the local church to express her love for her deceased mother.
She now devoted herself full-time to the goal of creating an official Mother's Day, and started an initiative to introduce an official holiday in honor of mothers by writing letters to politicians, business people, clergy and women's associations. The movement grew very quickly. As early as 1909, Mother's Day was celebrated in 45 states in the USA . In 1912 the Methodists introduced it to West Virginia. On May 8, 1914, the US Congress passed the Joint Resolution Designating the Second Sunday in May as Mother's Day : As a sign of love and admiration for mothers, the 2nd Sunday in May should be celebrated as Mother's Day. The President of the United States should have the public buildings flagged on that day; President Woodrow Wilson complied with this will of Congress that same year. In 1914, Mother's Day was celebrated as a national holiday for the first time.
As Mother's Day became more widespread and commercialized, the founder of the holiday turned away from the movement, regretted having started it, and unsuccessfully fought for the holiday to be abolished.
Beginnings of international distribution
The movement was not confined to the United States. A Mother's Day International Association was founded as early as 1912 with the aim of spreading Mother's Day internationally . In the United Kingdom the concept of Mother's Day was quickly accepted and the traditional Mothering Sunday (the fourth Sunday of Lent , before one day in honor of the Mother Church ) merged. The holiday spread further in 1917 in Switzerland , 1918 in Finland and Norway , 1919 in Sweden , from 1923 in Germany and 1924 in Austria .
Switzerland
Two groups took the initiative to introduce Mother's Day in Switzerland: the Unions Chrétiennes de Jeunes Gens de la Suisse romande and the Salvation Army . The former published their appeal as early as 1914 in their organ of the association, expressly referring to the Anglo-Saxon model; they met with a certain response from Reformed pastors in French-speaking Switzerland , but could not gain a foothold in German-speaking Switzerland with their initiative. The Salvation Army first issued a call to celebrate a day of honor for the mother in the summer of 1917, which emphasized the religious justification of such an honor.
Both initiatives were successful in their respective institutions, but remained limited to small circles until the 1920s. Then the Swiss associations of florists (encouraged by their German colleagues), the master gardener and the master confectioner began to get involved in Mother's Day. They took part in central and local committees that promoted Mother's Day, but stayed in the background in public. The public calls were signed by ethically committed public figures. Mother's Day for the second Sunday in May 1930 was propagated through the press, leaflets, the radio and the shop windows of the professionals involved and thus achieved a breakthrough.
Germany
In Germany, Mother's Day was established in 1922/23 by the Association of German Flower Shop Owners with posters "Honor the Mother" in the shop windows and - emphatically apolitical - celebrated as the day of flower wishes. With posters in shop windows, smaller advertising campaigns and events, including Mother's Day poetry, the way was paved for the first German Mother's Day on May 13, 1923 by the chairman of the association, Rudolf Knauer. From 1926, the propagation of Mother's Day was transferred to the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Volksgesundung in order to “win over the church and school and get the government to set Mother's Day as an official holiday on the second Sunday in May”.
During the time of National Socialism , the celebration of Mother's Day was linked to the idea of the “Germanic master race ”. Mothers with many children in particular were celebrated as heroines of the people because they were supposed to promote the “ Aryan offspring”. In 1933, Mother's Day was declared a public holiday and was celebrated for the first time on May 3rd, 1934, as the “Day of Remembrance and Honor of German Mothers” with the introduction of the Reich Mothers Service in the Reich women’s leadership. The seemingly religious celebrations ("Mother Consecrations") were scheduled to compete with Christian celebrations on Sundays at 10 o'clock. In 1938, the Cross of Honor of the German Mother was also introduced, which was awarded for the first time on Mother's Day on May 21, 1939.
The social economist and journalist Jan Feddersen wrote in the daily newspaper taz in May 2005 on the occasion of Mother's Day under the title Uncomfortable Day :
“The Nazis wanted women as comrades, but even more so as birthing machines. The mother was a saint in the völkisch madness, honored on Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May. Why is it still celebrated today, despite all feminism? "
In the GDR , Mother's Day was not officially celebrated; instead, International Women's Day was celebrated on March 8th.
The second Sunday in May 1949 was May 8th. Thus, Mother's Day in 1949 still took place in the Western Allied Trizone . The Federal Republic of Germany, which was founded 15 days later on May 23, 1949 with the proclamation of the Basic Law, did not celebrate its first Mother's Day until 1950. The non-statutory holiday has a special position with regard to the sale of flowers. Flower shops are usually allowed to stay open on this day. In Baden-Württemberg, however, this does not apply if Mother's Day falls on a public holiday, e.g. B. in 2008 on Pentecost Sunday . The next time Pentecost Sunday and Mother's Day fall on the same day in 2035.
Mother's Day is not anchored in law, rather its date is based on agreements of business associations. The florists' associations in Germany have set the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day, which means that Pentecost Sunday and Mother's Day fall on the same day if Easter is celebrated on March 26th at the latest. This was most recently the case in 1978, 1989 and 2008. Since some state laws prohibit the opening of shops on Whitsunday, the German retail trade decided in 1949 - an alternative date can be sought in such cases. In 2007, a discussion broke out between German retailers and calendar publishers. After much back and forth, the discussion ended with the fact that Mother's Day 2008 took place on the second Sunday in May, i.e. Pentecost Sunday. For some calendar publishers, however, the decision came too late, so that many calendars for 2008 entered Mother's Day on May 4th.
Austria
In Austria, the founder of the women's movement, Marianne Hainisch, is the initiator of Mother's Day, which was introduced as Federal President in 1924 during the second term in office of her son Michael Hainisch . Together with the boy scout movement, the industrialist's wife got involved in celebrating a Mother's Day that quickly caught on. In the Greater German Reich from 1938 onwards, the festivities were promoted by the state (→ Germany ).
Economic importance
In the US, Mother's Day financial expenses are only exceeded by Christmas. The National Retail Association estimates that an average of $ 172 is spent per gifted mother.
According to the HDE , every German spends an average of 25 euros on Mother's Day gifts. Although the trend is towards gifts in kind, flowers are still largely given away. According to the Central Market and Price Reporting Office in Germany, up to 130 million euros in sales are achieved with cut flowers during Mother's Day.
The flower trade generates the largest sales of the year (before Valentine's Day ) on Mother's Day .
The commercialization of the day was sharply criticized , among others, by its founder Anna Marie Jarvis .
Data in the world
| date | country |
|---|---|
| 2nd Sunday in February |
 Norway
|
| On the anniversary of Henrietta Szold's death , the 30th day of the month of Shevat (between January 30th and March 1st; 2019: February 5th, 2020: February 15th) |
 Israel
|
| 3 March |
 Georgia
|
| 8th of March | Celebration of International Women's Day together with Mother's Day: Afghanistan , Armenia , Azerbaijan , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Bulgaria , Laos , Moldova , Montenegro , Serbia , Ukraine ; Celebration of International Women's Day instead of Mother's Day: Albania , Kazakhstan , North Macedonia , Romania , Russia              
|
| March 21st ( beginning of spring ) |
 Egypt , Bahrain , Iraq , Israel ( Israeli Arabs only ), Yemen , Jordan , Kuwait , Lebanon , Libya , Oman , Palestine , Saudi Arabia , Sudan , Syria , United Arab Emirates            
|
|
4th Lent Sunday (2019: March 31, 2020: March 22) |
 Ireland , Nigeria , United Kingdom 
|
| March 25th ( Annunciation ) |
 Slovenia
|
| 7th of April |
Armenia
|
| April 24th ± 5 days in Baisakh Amavasya (1st month of the Bengali calendar ) |
 Nepal
|
| 1st Sunday in May |
 Angola , Cape Verde , Lithuania , Mozambique , Portugal , Spain , Hungary     
|
| 8th of May |
Albania (Parents Day), South Korea (Parents Day)
 |
| 10th of May |
 El Salvador , Guatemala , Mexico 
|
| 2nd Sunday in May |
 Anguilla , Aruba , Ethiopia , Australia , Bahamas , Bangladesh , Barbados , Belgium (excluding Antwerp region ), Belize , Bermuda , Bonaire , Brazil , Brunei , Chile , Taiwan , People's Republic of China (including Macau ), Curaçao , Denmark , Germany , Dominica , Ecuador , Estonia , Fiji , Finland , Ghana , Grenada , Greece , Honduras , India , Iceland , Italy , Jamaica , Japan , Canada , Colombia , Croatia , Cuba , Latvia , Liechtenstein , Malaysia , Malta , Myanmar , Netherlands , New Zealand , Austria , Pakistan , Papua New Guinea , Peru , Philippines , Puerto Rico , St. Kitts and Nevis , St. Lucia , St. Vincent and the Grenadines , Zambia , Samoa , Switzerland , Zimbabwe , Singapore , Sint Maarten , Slovakia , Sri Lanka , South Africa , Suriname , Tanzania , Tonga , Trinidad and Tobago , Czech Republic , Turkey , Uganda , Ukraine , Uruguay , United States , Venezuela , Vietnam , Cyprus                                                                         
|
| May 15 |
 Paraguay
|
| May 26 |
 Poland (not a public holiday, but may coincide with Corpus Christi , which is a public holiday)
|
| May 27th |
 Bolivia
|
| 30th May |
 Nicaragua
|
| last Sunday in May |
 Algeria , Dominican Republic , Haiti , Morocco , Mauritius , Sweden , Tunisia ; France and French West Indies ( Guadeloupe , Martinique , Saint-Barthélemy , Saint-Martin ) - except if this falls on Pentecost : then 1st Sunday in June
        |
| June 1st |
 Mongolia (mother and child day)
|
| 2nd Sunday in June |
 Luxembourg
|
| last Sunday in June |
 Kenya
|
| 12. August |
 Thailand (Queen Sirikit's Birthday )
|
| August 15th ( Assumption of Mary ) |
Belgium ( Antwerp region only ), Costa Rica
|
| October 14th |
 Belarus
|
| 2nd Monday in October |
 Malawi
|
| 3rd Sunday in October |
 Argentina
|
| last Sunday in November |
Russia (The day is little known among the population. The celebrations of Mother's Day typical of the western world take place on International Women's Day, which is an official holiday.)
|
| December 8th |
 Panama
|
| December 22 |
 Indonesia
|
| 20th day of Jumada th-thaniyya (Islamic calendar) |
 Iran (Mother's Day is also the birthday of the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed , Fatima bint Mohammed )
|
literature
- Alexander Boesch, Birgit Bolognese-Leuchtenmüller, Hartwig Knack: Product Mother's Day: For the ritual staging of a feast day , for the exhibition: Product Mothers Day - For the ritual staging of a feast day, April 6 to June 4, 2001, Austrian Museum of Folklore , Vienna (= catalogs of the Austrian Museum of Folklore , Volume 78). Austrian Museum of Folklore, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-900359-92-X .
- Elba Maria Frank: The institution Mother's Day: a historical-sociological study , VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2009, ISBN 978-3-8364-5057-7 .
- Karin Hausen: Mothers between business interests and cultic veneration. The "German Mother's Day" in the Weimar Republic. In: Gerhard Huck (ed.): Social history of leisure time. Investigation of the change in everyday culture in Germany. Hammer, Wuppertal 1980; Pp. 249-280, ISBN 3-87294-164-X .
- Jörg Koch: Mother's Day, in: Ders. That you don't forget history - state commemorative and public holidays from 1871 to today. Wbg Academic, Darmstadt 2019, ISBN 978-3-534-40186-4 , pp. 161-168.
- Max Matter: Depoliticization through emotionalization. German Mother's Day - German Mother's Day - Mother's Day. In: Rüdiger Voigt (Ed.): Symbols of Politics, Politics of Symbols. Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1989. pp. 123-135, ISBN 3-8100-0697-1 .
- Eduard Strübin: Mother's Day in Switzerland. In: Swiss Archives for Folklore , vol. 52, 1956. pp. 95–121.
- Irmgard Weyrather: Mother's Cross and Mother's Day. The cult of the "German mother" under National Socialism. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-596-11517-5 .
Web links
- Sandra Kegel: On the 100th Anniversary: The Mother's Day Machine , FAZ , May 11, 2008
- Liliane Leible: Mother's Day and "Mother's Cross"
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Strübin, p. 96.
- ↑ Mother's Day Proclamation
- ↑ Strübin, p. 97.
- ↑ Strübin, p. 99.
- ↑ Mothering Sunday , BBC
- ↑ a b Strübin, p. 102.
- ↑ Strübin, p. 103.
- ↑ a b Strübin, p. 104.
- ↑ Association newspaper German florist 13/1926; quoted in Hausen (1980).
- ↑ See Weyrather (1993).
- ↑ Meyers Lexikon, 8th ed., Vol. 8, Col. 14 Mother's Day .
- ↑ Jan Feddersen: Uncomfortable day. In: taz archive. May 7, 2005, accessed August 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Based on Section 23 of the Act on Shop Closures; see also Matter (1989)
- ↑ No flower sales on Mother's Day , DDP of May 5, 2008, accessed on May 6, 2008
- ↑ Mother's Day is May 11th - or is it? , Donaukurier.de
- ↑ Mother's Day will not be postponed after all , Welt Online
- ^ Anonymous: The long and short of America's consumer holidays . In: National Retail Federation . May 1, 2014 ( nrf.com [accessed May 5, 2017]).
- ↑ Families Spending More Than Ever on Mom, According to NRF Survey , National Retail Federation press release, April 27, 2015
- ↑ Retail wants to bring Mother's Day forward , Süddeutsche.de from May 10, 2007
- ^ Días Nacionales en Chile
- ↑ Xinhua: It's Mother's Day (archived). (No longer available online.) May 15, 2006, archived from the original ; accessed on June 28, 2020 (English).
- ↑ El origen del Día de la Madre Author: Lic. Pedro Rafael Díaz Figueroa, in El Nuevo Diario , May 27, 1999