The Origin of Mother's Day and Father's Day

For most of America, Mother's Day is a day of great celebration. And of course, God has commanded His people to "Honor your father and your mother: Exodus 20:12
1599 Geneva Bible

12 Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be prolonged upon the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

 

 

For many of us, keeping this commandment includes the celebrating of these "holidays." But in truth, these worldly so-called holidays and their common practices are not based on scripture, like Christmas and Easter, have roots in paganism.

 

To begin with, the day set aside to "honor" fathers was merely an afterthought to Mother's Day. And yet, the law says "honor thy father and thy mother." Not mother and father, but father and mother. This subtle reversal of order has led to major confusion and family instability - even in the household of faith.

Rhea the wife of her brother Cronus

 

Like all western so-called holidays, the origin of a Mother's Day celebration clearly traces back to ancient pagan practices. Beginning at about 250 BC, the Greeks held an annual spring festival in "honor" of 'Rhea', the wife of her brother Cronus, known as the "mother of the gods"(Queen of Heaven), similarly, evidence of a three-day Roman festival in Mid-March called Hilaria, to honor the Roman goddess Magna Mater, or Great Mother. During that same period, the Romans held a similar festival dedicated to the "mother goddess" 'Cybele.' By the 1600's, "Mothering Sunday" was being celebrated by the English on the fourth Sunday of "Lent."

The concept of Mother Earth arose centuries later in Greece. In the 7th century BCE, the poet Hesiod gave the "deep-breasted" earth mother the name Gaea, she who "gave birth" to the sky, sea, and mountains, as well as the ruling gods called the Titans. A few centuries later, Gaea's daughter Rhea, was honored each year with festivals called "Hilaria". The festivities lasted for three days and by all accounts were great family entertainment, with revelers bringing and here the stage was set for one of the great struggles of all time, a battle that the classicist Robert Graves described as one between the pagan Goddess and the Hebrew and Christian God. Known as the Magna Mater (Great Mother), Cybele was widely honored. Her worship, however, was associated with some rather repellent rituals that eventually led to the banishment of her followers from Rome, gravely weakening the goddess religions.

 

  Triple Goddess

 

Graves notes that the Christian church declared war on the White Goddess, also known as the Triple Goddess, the ancient European deity who appeared as the new, full, and old moons, representing "The Female Goddess of Birth, Love and Death". The Christian Trinity, said Graves, eventually triumphed over the trinity of the Goddess. The Western male conquered the Eastern and agricultural female. 

 

In victory, the patriarchal Roman Catholic Church subsumed and welcomed its former opponents by calling itself  ''Mother Church.'' A new variation of Mother's Day, was put in place, this time in honor of the church itself. On the fourth Sunday in Lent, people brought gifts to the church where they had been baptized. This custom changed during late Medieval times when many children had to move away from home in order to find work and were only allowed one holiday a year, and it was on this fourth Sunday that the children went home to see their mothers. Thus the custom of "Mothering Sunday" was begun.

 

Similarly, in the Celtic countries and the British Isles, the powerful goddess Brigit was transformed into her Christian successor, St. Brigid. Brigit's sacred day, which was connected with the ewes coming into milk, became St. Brigid's Day. Though formal mother worship was never completely eliminated in the British Isles, by the 17th century Mother's Day had been almost completely submerged into Mothering Day. Not surprisingly, with the disappearance of a female deity, the devotion to Mary, Mother of Jesus, would soon emerge as the new Mother cult.

 

 

In 1872, Julia Ward Howe, lyricist of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", introduced the idea of a Mother’s Day in the United States. Some 35 years later, Ana Jarvis of Philadelphia started a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. By 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in nearly every state in the union. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it official - proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday to be held each year on the second Sunday of May.

 

In 1909, Sonora Dodd, a woman from Spokane, Washington, while listening to a Mother's Day sermon, thought about her father William Smart, a Civil War veteran, who had raised his six children by himself after his wife died while giving birth to their last child. Ms. Dodd then decided to show her appreciation for her father by setting aside a special day to "honor" him. His birthday happened to be in June, so she chose that month for the new "Father's Day."

 

 With the enthusiastic support of the Spokane Ministerial Association and the YMCA, the first Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910. By 1914, President Wilson had personally approved of the idea. Further support came from President Calvin Coolidge in 1924. Finally, in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday in June as Father's Day.
 

As Christianity spread throughout Europe, the celebration of the "Mother Church" replaced the pagan tradition of honoring mythological goddesses. The fourth Sunday in Lent (Weeping for Tammuz), a 40-day fasting period before Easter, became known as Mothering Sunday.

 To show appreciation for their mothers, they often brought gifts or a "mothering cake" (Jeremiah 7:18) and over time, it began to coincide with the celebration of the Mother Church.
Mother's Day always falls on the second Sun-day of May, and like so many other holidays rooted in pagan sun-worship including Father's Day which always falls on the third Sun-day of June, usually fall on the day named in honor of their most powerful god -- The Sun!

But are these "holidays" truly honoring our fathers and mothers in Spirit and in truth?

 

 

In the original Hebrew language, the word honor actually means to provide with material substance. It is written, "Honor widows, which are widows indeed." (1 Tim 5:3). The passage goes on to say, "If any faithful man or faithful woman have widows, let them minister unto them, and let not the Church be charged, that there may be sufficient for them that are widows indeed." (1 Tim 5:16).
In TRUTH, the fifth Commandment charges us with the reciprocal responsibility of taking care of our fathers and mothers when they are aged. As the financial systems of this world continue to be shaken, it is simply an imperative that we truly honor our fathers and mothers - with deeds, and not just with days...

 

Remember this is the first commandment with promise; and therefore we would do well to honor our mothers according to the truth of God - and not the vain traditions of men!

 

 

Birthday Origins & History with Biblical references - Mother's Day Father's Day

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