Happy Mother’s Day: The Origins of Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day: The Origins of Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day, here’s a nice post on Mother’s and Happiness: http://ministryofhappiness.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/happy-mothers-day-mothers-and-happiness/

The origins of Mother’s Day are as ancient as the Egyptians but those celebrations were typically oriented first to the concept of the god mother, later the mother church and then to motherhood itself.  When settlers came to America, they abandoned the traditional Mother’s Day and it wasn’t until the writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, changed the holiday forever.  The link below is the whole history and the bit below that is taken from that piece and explains the modern American holiday.

http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/about-mothersday/history/

Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870

Julia Ward Howe

The first North American Mother’s Day was conceptualized with Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Despite having penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic 12 years earlier, Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War that she called on Mother’s to come together and protest what she saw as the futility of their Sons killing the Sons of other Mothers. With the following, she called for an international Mother’s Day celebrating peace and motherhood:

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:
 
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of
charity, mercy and patience.
 
“We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
  
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have of ten forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.
 
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
 
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
 
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
 
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions.
The great and general interests of peace.

Twisted Christmas: The Origins of Christmas

I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas, to say the least, so my vision of Christmas is a little bit twisted, hence the title of my first Christmas post.  I thought like I did for Halloween it my be interesting to take a look at the origins of Christmas, so here goes.

So much like Halloween, the holiday of Christmas has its origins in the pagan religion.  I know, I know, Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birthday, except for one thing, no one believes that Jesus of Nazareth was born in December.  The link below provides a long and thorough accounting of the likely date of Jesus’ birth based off of the writings in the bible:

http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/ARTB/k/568/When-Was-Jesus-Born.htm

The conclusion that this author and many others have made is that Jesus was almost certainly born sometime in the fall.  So if December 25^th isn’t Jesus’ birthday why do we celebrate Christmas in December?

Well first we have to recognize that several pagan festivals were celebrated either on the winter solstice or in the case of the Feast of the Son of Isis, celebrated on December 25^th.  The entire holiday season for the Romans covering December and January was called the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.   Given this, in 350AD Pope Julius I decreed that Christ’s birthday would be celebrated on December 25^th.  He did this for political reasons; the Pope knew that the majority of Romans, who were not Christians at the time, would more easily convert to Christianity if they could still have their rituals and feasts.  Christmas or the Christ Mass seems to have its earliest origins in the 1500’s in Germany.

The most identifiable icon of Christmas, the Christmas tree has its origins as well with the Pagans of Northern Europe as the evergreen tree was symbolic in all of their winter festivals, as well, the wreath was often used as a celebratory symbol in solstice celebrations and at weddings as a sign of fertility.  The solstice holiday was called Yule and huge fires were burnt in honor of the sun-god on this holiday.  Hence our tradition of burning a Yule log, although I can’t imagine what the Pagans would think of today’s televised Yule log.  Finally, the Druids considered Mistletoe a sacred plant and kissing under the Mistletoe was a fertility ritual.  Given all of the fertility symbolism tied to Christmas, it’s amazing their aren’t a lot more birthdays in September.

So very much like Halloween, Christmas is a Christian holiday stacked on top of old Pagan holidays and traditions.  Also like Halloween, the reasons and ways we celebrate the holiday are very different, even from the holiday as it was celebrated even fifty years ago.