Just a Thought: Today is Mother’s Day
By Steve Walker
Today we celebrate Mother’s Day. It is
the day we honor our mothers and
motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is
celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in spring
in April or May.
Here in the United States
it is designated as the second Sunday in May which turns out to be the 8th this
year. Last year it fell on May 10th.
The modern holiday of
Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when a woman named Anna Jarvis held a memorial for
her mother in Grafton, West Virginia. She then began a campaign to make
"Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States.
It took until 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a
proclamation naming the second Sunday of May as a day for “public expression of
our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.” This year
we celebrate the 102th anniversary
of Mother’s Day in the US.
When we think of the
sacrifice many of our mothers who have nurtured us all through our life, we
can’t help but be thankful to them and for them.
Look at many of our
successful leaders in San Antonio who have been significantly influenced and
guided by their mothers. When you think of former Mayor and
now HUD Secretary Julian Castro and
Congressman Joaquin Castro you
immediately think of their success and the influence that their mother Rosie Castro has made a
difference in their lives.
Both are graduates of
Harvard Law School and Stanford University. Rosie herself is well educated and
making a difference in the community on her own as a community activist and
college instructor with a Master’s Degree.
Currently
Rosie’s son Julian is being considered on the short list of possible Vice
President Nominees by former Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton should she receive the
Democratic nomination for this year’s presidential election. That would be a
great belated Mother’s Day gift for Rosie to be the mother of a US Vice
President!!!
Then we have mother Millie Duran, the Founder of the
La Prensa Education Foundation which has raised millions of dollars for
scholarships. Millie is the wife of La Prensa Publisher Tino Duran and mother to sons
David, Steve, and Tino Jr., plus two daughters Barbara and Nina Duran. Nina (also a mother) now has
taken over the reins of La Prensa to take the paper into a different direction.
According to history
Jarvis the founder of “Mother’s Day” became very disappointed with its
commercialization by the 1920s. Her mission was to honor her mother with an
official Mother’s Day, not commercialize it in her words. Obviously it became
so popular it was eventually adopted by numerous other countries and is now
celebrated all over the world.
In Mexico for example the
government of Alvaro Obregon imported the Mother's Day holiday from the US in
1922 marking May 10th every year as Mother’s Day, with the
newspaper Excelsior holding a massive promotional campaign for the holiday that
year.
In this tradition, in the
early 1920s, Hallmark Cards began creating and producing Mother’s Day cards so
each person could offer a gift, card, or remembrance toward their mothers,
grandmothers, and/ or maternal figure on that special Mother's Day.
We have come a long way
in one hundred years celebrating Mother’s Day. Just a suggestion would be to
give your mother a “Happy Mother’s Day” card if you haven’t already and perhaps
take her out to dinner to a nice restaurant.
As always, I write just thought.
Steve Walker is a Vietnam Veteran, former Judge and Journalist
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