Mother's Day History

People in many ancient cultures celebrated holidays honoring motherhood, personified as a goddess. Here are just a few of those:

• ancient Greeks celebrated a holiday in honor of Rhea, the mother of the gods
• ancient Romans celebrated a holiday in honor of Cybele, a mother goddess, March 22-25 - the celebrations were notorious enough that followers of Cybele were banished from Rome
• in the British Isles and Celtic Europe, the goddess Brigid, and later her successor St. Brigid, were honored with a spring Mother's Day, connected with the first milk of the ewes

Mother's Day: What You Need to Know

• Ancient Celebrations of Mothers and Motherhood
• Mothering Sunday in Britain
• Mothers' Work Days
• Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day
• Anna Jarvis and Mother's Day
• Carnations, Anna Jarvis, and Mother's Day
• International Mother's Days Today
• Mother's Day Statistics
• Mother's Day Proclamations
• Famous Mothers
• Quotes on Mothers and Motherhood
• Ideas for Mother's Day (in the spirit of the originals)
• Motherhood in History
• Mother's Day - Index

Text copyright 1999-2005 © Jone Johnson Lewis