A Little Mother’s Day History
With Mother’s Day coming up, I thought some people may be a little interested in the history of Mother’s Day and how we all came to rush around and sign cards, buy flowers and jewelry and give mothers tokens of appreciation for raising us into the people we have become.
So where did this holiday originate from? How do people from other cultures and places of origin go about telling their mothers how much they are appreciated?
In the year 1906, a woman by the name of Anna Jarvis began campaigning to start a day where all Americans would celebrate their mothers. She began spreading her idea to other people through church meetings and letters to representatives in government as well as businessmen. Within 3 years, 46 states were celebrating Mother’s Day and in the year 1914, it was regarded as a national holiday.
Through the years, Americans have fallen into the old routine of commercializing and not only going above and beyond with this holiday, but using it purely for promotional and commercial purposes, which is the same thing that Christmas has also evolved into. Because of this, through the years, Jarvis has spent her years trying to decommercialize Mother’s Day, feeling that the original meaning of the day she worked so hard to get Americans to celebrate, had lost its original meaning.
In Jarvis’ own words, Mother’s Day is “To let (mothers) know we appreciate them, though we do not show it as often as we ought.”
Here are ways other cultures celebrate Mother’s Day:
In ancient Greece, which accounts for the earliest Mother’s Day celebration, people paid tribute to the mother of the gods, Rhea, with with honey cakes, fine drinks and flowers at dawn.
In Serbia, Mother’s Day, known as Materice in Serbia, is celebrated on the second Sunday before Christmas. This is perhaps the funniest way of celebrating Mother’s Day I have ever heard. On this day, children sneak into their mother’s rooms and tie her feet with either ribbon or string. If that wasn’t funny enough, in order for the mothers to be released, they must negotiate with their children, presenting them with small gifts. I believe that in Serbia they got it a little mixed up, maybe it should be called Children’s Day.
During the Middle Ages in Britain, the wealthy people gave their servants the day off so they could travel, usually far away, to see their mothers.
So there’s some history on Mother’s Day for everyone. So tell me now, what are you planning for your mother?
Planning Your Big Day: Wedding Registries
There are a lot of things to consider when planning your wedding and let’s face it, who can ignore the fact that there are presents involved?
Women have a tendency to over think pretty much everything regarding their wedding day; the term “bridezilla” didn’t come out of the sky, you know, and setting up your wedding registry is no different. There are some simple things you can do, however, to make the process of setting up your wedding registry.
First of all, start with the room you get the most excited about when you think about getting shiny, new things for it. If it’s your bedroom, go to the bedroom and take a look around. Take note of what you already have (and like) and think about what you’ve been wanting to add to the room that you haven’t already. If you have some items, like myself, that maybe your parents or your soon-to-be spouse’s parent’s handed down to you, would you like to update them? If so, in what colors or styles? Make a list of items you need as well as what you would like–It’s okay to be a little frivolous; in fact, it’s expected.
After you’ve finished with the room that you get the most excited about, move through the house in the order of what rooms give you that warm and fuzzy feeling and rooms that you would love some new gadgets for. However, it is also expected that you will forget some items that you’ll be kicking yourself later for not adding to your registry, so to help out with setting up your wedding registry, I Do Sugar, part of the Sugar blog network, has made a very convenient PDF file containing items that one can most often easily forget about to make sure that doesn’t happen to you!
You can download the PDF file here; I can’t even imagine the number of sanities this file is going to save when it comes to wedding registry planning!
Giving Your Pet Medication Just Got Easier
Giving medication to your pet is sometimes worse than getting your child to swallow that disgusting spoonful of cough medicine. They refuse to take the medication willingly and in most cases, pet owners must resort to holding their pet down and slipping a capsule into their mouths and hope they don’t just take it into another room and spit it out.
I got my cat spayed about a year ago and while still at the vet office the next morning, she had ripped all of her stitches out and within a few days of bringing her home, she had an infection from the stitches and the vet having to restitch her. In addition to the normal medication I had to give her, I also had to give her an antibiotic for the infection. Now, I have an unnatural love for my cat, I treat her as well as people treat their children and seeing her in any kind of pain or discomfort at all had me welling up with tears, so giving her the two medications twice a day was agony for me–and she didn’t like it much, either.
I recently found a great item that makes giving pets medication easier than ever–Pill Pockets. Staying true to hiding capsules in food, Pill Pockets, made by Greenies, are treats for pets that you can easily put a pill in and feed to your pet. They are made for cats as well as for dogs and would most definitely be an asset for any person having trouble with giving their pets medication.
