Earth Day, Secretary’s Day, Administrative Professionals’ Day, Valentine’s Day, Eat your Vegetables Day, Book Lover’s Day … and, of course, Mother’s Day… Days designated for a specific group or occasion are very common in the U.S.A.
Last sunday was Mother's Day and a good friend of us asked whether we worship our mothers in Germany as well. I told him: Yes, in general, we do, but, no, personally we don’t like it. I never understood the sense of a special day for something. Why Mother’s Day, please? Just one single day for a 24/7-mom? Once a year breakfast being served in bed by the kids, a flower bouquet or a box of chocolates as a present? Is that enough appreciation for all the daily work, aggravation and worries?
In our family Mother’s Day has never been a big deal. On the other hand, even as a middle school student of about 14 years, having to manage with little pocket money, I bought my mom flowers from time to time. There was a florist on my way from school and I always bought parrot tulips (don't know who liked them more, my mom or me...). Later at high school in the big city, I sometimes bought "chocolate bananas" at a chocolate shop I passed every school day. My mom loved them. I did it without good reason, not because I had bad grades or wanted to bribe her and not because I was such a good kid. And, mind you, my mom was no angel, rather on the contrary, but somehow I had the „congenial desire“ to show my appreciation from time to time.
Though our friends with kids may object and tell me that I am not a mother and can’t judge. I object, in my opinion Mother’s Day is redundant and unnecessary. Just florists and chocolate producers are the winners, not mothers in the long run. I am appealing to moms all around the world: Get up and boycott Mother's Day!
If you didn’t know: Mother's Day is an American invention - who would have guessed? It was first celebrated in 1908. A lady by the name of Anna Jarvis (1864 -1948) held a memorial in honor for her mom, Ann Reeves Jarvis, in a Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Officially it was recognized Mother's Day in 1910 and in 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed the official proclamation. Since then it’s always on the second Sunday in May, a national holiday. Already Miss Jarvis struggled against commercialization and nowadays it’s mostly the confection, floral and greeting card industries making big profits on this day. By the way, Mother’s Day cards aren’t very common in Germany compared to the U.S.A., but in contrast it has become popular to put an ad in the local newspaper to let your mom know how much you like her. Perhaps she’d rather have loved to get the money which the ad cost for a spa treatment …?
Same is true for Father’s Day on „Himmelfahrt“ (Ascension Day), end of May. This is always a good excuse for fathers to meet, get away from the family, make an excursion - preferably by bike - and get drunk, at least in Germany. Another (German) phenomenon is called "Allerheiligen" (All Saints Day, November 1st) – big deal! Then, people who don’t even know the spelling of „cemetery“, visit the gravesites of deceased family members or friends and play „sad“ and concerned. They will never see a cemetery again from the inside until same date next year. The people who care all year round, do the planting and cleaning and pruning, don’t need to circle the cemetery for 30 minutes on that special day to find parking …
Subject of this post was „superficiality“ or „illusion and reality“. Seems like there is not a really big difference between Germany and America.
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