A Day For Intimate Family Love

The grieving mother of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish took bread and coffee for her son in the occupation’s prisons, hoping that would relieve him, but the occupation authorities prevented her, so the mother repeated the attempt and pleaded with the soldiers, not desperate, until they allowed her to see her son, whom she embraced as a small child while crying. After her departure, he wrote this poem for her and put it under the title "Apology" because he thought that his mother did not love him. These were the words that came out from behind the bars of the occupation in 1965, and turned into one of the most famous Arab Mother's Day songs.

On March 21 of every year, the Arab world celebrates the mother, and the world pays special attention to her celebration despite the different dates and methods of celebration in each country.

Anna fights for her mother

The story of the celebration began thousands of years ago, with the beginning of the mythological eras in Asia Minor, where the people of Phrygia honored the “mother of the goddess Cybele.” Then the Greeks came to have this celebration as part of their spring celebrations, and the Romans followed them, who were bringing gifts to the temple to bring joy to the The same "Mother Gods" in her honor.

With the advent of Christianity, the celebration became held in honor of the "mother church" on the fourth Sunday of Lent for Christians, and took another form in the Middle Ages. But the actual modern founder of this day is a woman from the United States of America named "Anna Garvis".

Anna wanted to honor her mother and the mothers of the entire world. She dedicated her life to fulfilling her mother's wish for a Mother's Day. After her mother's death in 1905, she decided to launch a major campaign for a National Mother's Day in the United States.

In 1907, Anna held a memorial service for her mother and began writing hundreds of letters to those holding hundreds of offices in her country demanding a mother's feast. Although the response of officials was not as much as she had hoped, she was able to obtain the support of the well-known merchant "John and Anna Miller", and as a result of this support, 45 states in America celebrated Mother's Day in 1909.

Among the manifestations of the celebration was the wearing of red carnations in honor of mothers and white carnations in honor of the deceased, a tradition that is still followed in some countries of the world.

In 1911, the majority of American states celebrated Mother's Day, and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday of May every year a national holiday to celebrate Mother's Day.

Day of gifts and celebration

The ways to celebrate Mother's Day differ from one place to another. In Britain, they celebrate it on March 26 and call it "Mother's Sunday", and a special cake is prepared called the Maternity Cake. In Australia, everyone wears a pink shirt as an expression of their devotion and love.

In Ethiopia, the celebration is linked to the end of the rainy winter season, and the sons offer sweets to their mothers, and they paint themselves with butter to celebrate them.

In Yugoslavia, the celebration takes another very strange form, as they celebrate over three days in the month of December, which are the first three Sundays of the month in a row. Fathers bind their children on the first Sunday and do not release them until after they confess their loyalty to the fathers. On the second Sunday, the sons bind their mothers and do not untie them until they give them sweets and gifts as evidence of their love for them. On the third Sunday, the sons celebrate Father’s Day, by tying them up to the fathers and releasing them only after promising the sons to buy new clothes.