Greetings,
A “day in the praise of mothers” has some quite interesting origins. Although we know it as Mother’s Day, its development came from two very different sources.
Although now commonly referred to as Mother’s Day, the British/European day is the fourth Sunday in Lent – three weeks before Easter. Its origin is a religious festival known as Mothering Sunday. Some sources suggest its origin is in a festival to honor the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele. In time the Virgin Mary replaced the goddesses as the “mother” figure. In view of the syncretism of paganism with developing Christianity there is probably some truth to this. However, most agree with a pre-Reformation beginning when on Laetare Sunday people returned to visit their “mother church” where they were baptized or attended as children. Cathedrals were viewed as the mother church of all the other churches in a diocese. Those who engaged in this would say they had gone “a mothering.” Some sources indicate that on this day reference was made to the heavenly Jerusalem as “the mother of us all.”
Over time the Mothering Sunday tradition shifted to a more secular focus and somewhere around the 1930’s and 40’s it merged in meaning with the American secular model.
The name Jarvis is strongly associated with the American Mother’s Day. Firstly, Ann Jarvis began a movement to teach local women (in West Virginia) how to better take care of their children. Following the Civil War she organized a “Mothers’ Friendship day” to assist reconciliation between Union and Confederate soldiers. Following her death, her daughter, Anna Jarvis thought a day should be set aside to honor the sacrifices mothers made for their children. Through various means she doggedly pursued this cause until in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed off on establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
The irony is that this same lady who so vigorously worked for a day to honor mothers came to the point of seeking to have it removed from the American calendar. The reason for this was the ugly commercialization of the day that quickly developed. Retailers saw money in the day – cards, flowers, gifts and restaurants. The wonderful sentiment of honoring mothers appeared to Ms. Jarvis to have become drowned in a sea of commercialization. When she died, Anna Jarvis had completely disowned the day.
God’s people stand firmly on the principle of honoring both our father and mother. This is a requirement of God’s law and there are good reasons for it. The family is not only the building block of society, but as God intended, it is the building block of a godly family. Within a family, a relationship with God is established by and through the parents. When writing to the church in Ephesus, Paul extolled the virtues of marriage in terms of Christ and the church. In other words, marriage mirrors our relationship with the Father and Christ through our being members of Christ’s body. Seamlessly Paul continues with the role of children, reminding the church that honoring our father and mother is the first commandment with promise. Parents are to “bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1-4). By honoring our parents we assist them by being submissive to their training and admonition.
A very good example of the honor a mother should receive is given in the virtuous woman section of Proverbs 31. In response to the question, who can find a virtuous wife (NKJ), many virtues are listed. As the list concludes, she is acknowledged as being watchful over the ways of her household. For this, “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her” (verse 28). As a part of living The Way, we should be honoring our parents and appreciating the sacrifices that a mother gives, particularly in the formative years.
While it is not wrong to honor our mothers on Mother’s Day (for obvious reasons we do not observe Mothering Sunday), we should not allow the commercialization of the day to drive our attention to our mothers. We should honor them all the time! If your mother is still living, be sure to tell her that you love her and have appreciated all that she has done for you over the years. There is no time like the present.
Sabbath services this week will originate from the Bay Area.
Warm Regards,
Brian Orchard
