Where and why Mother's Day is celebrated today and the story of her creator who dedicated her life to boycott

The date of Mother's Day is different in each countryin some, March 8 (Women's Day), in others, the celebration lasts up to three days.

Most families organize family parties and gatherings, go out to restaurants or give gifts to pamper them.

On the American continent, it is usually celebrated mainly in May. –the second Sunday of this month– although other countries like Mexico, Guatemala and The Savior They do it days before.

The first festivities took place in the ancient Greece to entertain Rhea, mother of the gods Neptune, Jupiter and Pluto. The celebration was known as The hilaria and this took place on March 15 at the Cibeles Temple.

Several centuries later, in the seventeenth century, England began to celebrate the call "Domingo de las Madres", in which the children had to go home after mbad with gifts for their parents. It was a day off but it paid off, so the workers could travel to visit them.

In the USA, Julia Ward Howe, author of "Anthem of the Battle of the Republic", proposed December 8 –Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Salesian Catholics– as a date to honor peace. For several years, meetings were held in the cities of Boston and Mbadachusetts.

Then, in 1905, a young American girl named Anna Jarvis he suffered the death of his mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis, an East Virginia community activist who, in 1858, organized a women's group to work to improve public health in the Appalachian communities during the civil war.

Pushed by the maternal figure, she began sending letters to politicians, lawyers and other influential figures from her country to declare Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May, a date close to the anniversary. of the death of Reeves Jarvis.

"I hope and pray that someone, one day, will recognize one day in memory of mothers, celebrate the incomparable service they render to humanity in all areas of life, "he said.

Although he did it in 1914, when Congress declared that day was a "national holiday", from 1923 he set himself up against the celebration of his creation, for the commercial tone that he had acquired. But he had no answer to his orders.

Katharine Lane Antolini, author of "The commemoration of motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the struggle for control of Mother's Day", she explained. BBC What Jarvis criticized the merchants who "took advantage" of the event and I qualified them "perpetrators of copyright infringement, commercial vandals and declared speculators ".

He even protested against the floristss, which increased its prices in May and criticized the card industry with printed texts generated around the day. For her, To honor mothers, you have to go through personal letters written by hand.

Before dying, in 1948, seized with debts and depression, Jarvis confessed to a journalist: "I really regret having created Mother's Day."

In most countries of the world, Mother's Day is celebrated in May. It is celebrated on the second Sunday of May in Germany, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, United States, Estonia, Philippines, Finland, Greece, Honduras, Italy , Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Netherlands, Peru, Puerto Rico, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela.

In others, as in Panama, the date of remembrance is December 8th.. In Mexico, it is celebrated on May 10. Argentina is the only country where the third Sunday of October is celebrated.