Having reserved days - is it correct? - Page 2

Originally posted by: Maya_M

My opinion on reserved days for celebration

Happy celebrations like Father's day/Mother's day/Valentine's day: All these days existed even before the card companies. There are plenty evidences to support the fact of origin of these days and people celebrating it back then. It is true that card companies did make such days known to more people and I am not complaining because these days bring happiness in celebration and gives everyone an oppurtunity to thank people (Mother/Father) who means a lot to us. We know we love them but we don't say it daily. So why not reserve a day to do that? Even a festival like Diwali is actually celebration of joy and those stories associated with such festivals finally end in celebration of happiness.

Women's day: I am of the idea that women doesn't need a day to celebrate womenhood. Card companies didn't make this one a hit but it was well thought by women's liberation groups and spread world wide for the cause of women. So again my opinion is that if we keep special days to each cause like oppression of women, Cancer day, AIDS, Smoking then people take notice to it instantly and such days do make impact on people to do more for the cause.

Source Wikipedia:

Mother's Day:

The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908, in the Andrews Methodist Episcopal (now United Methodist) Church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School.

It's the US version of Mother's day that most of the countries celebrate.

Father's Day:

Father's Day is a primarily secular holiday inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and parenting by males, and to honor and commemorate fathers and forefathers. Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide, and typically involves gift-giving to fathers and family-oriented activities.

Both of these have pretty recent origin IMO.

Originally posted by: souro

Both of these have pretty recent origin IMO.

Thanks for those links, Soumya. I just saw that QT already posted an article.

This is an excerpt from another article

"Tributes to mothers can be traced back to ancient Greek times when their annual spring festival dedicated to the mother of many deities, Rhea, was celebrated. The ancient Romans made offerings to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. In the 1600's, England celebrated a day called "Mothering Sunday", which is celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent and honored the mothers of England. Mother's Day in England today is still celebrated on this day.

In the United States, Mother's Day actually started approximately 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community. She believed this cause would be best advocated by mothers and called it "Mother's Work Day."

Originally posted by: Maya_M

Thanks for those links, Soumya. I just saw that QT already posted an article.

This is an excerpt from another article

"Tributes to mothers can be traced back to ancient Greek times when their annual spring festival dedicated to the mother of many deities, Rhea, was celebrated. The ancient Romans made offerings to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. In the 1600's, England celebrated a day called "Mothering Sunday", which is celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent and honored the mothers of England. Mother's Day in England today is still celebrated on this day.

In the United States, Mother's Day actually started approximately 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community. She believed this cause would be best advocated by mothers and called it "Mother's Work Day."

That's why I specifically mentioned that it's the US version of Mother's Day, which we and most of the countries follow, is new, i.e., started only in 1908. The older versions are not the ones which we're celebrating.

And about father's day obviously you'll also agree it's pretty new.

Originally posted by: souro

That's why I specifically mentioned that it's the US version of Mother's Day, which we and most of the countries follow, is new, i.e., started only in 1908. The older versions are not the ones which we're celebrating.

And about father's day obviously you'll also agree it's pretty new.

Soumya, I was talking about the origin of Mother's day celebrations and making a point that it was not started by card companies. But it was made popular by card companies in countries like India. Even US Mother's Day was not prompted by card companies but people who genuinly wanted to mark a special day for mothers who otherwise does a thankless job.

As far as I know Father's day originated in 1904-05 which is not that new to me but yes! it is not that old looking at traditions.

My main point about this whole debate is I like special days like this where make it a point to wish/thanks parents and do something special for them.

When I was in school in India I used to take a lot of effort to make these days special for my parents. They loved it too and now as a mother I love it.

Btw RakshaBandhan day is mark of strong brother-sister bond and as tradition it was only about love. These days it is about how much money one can make by tying maximum rakhis to brothers. Meanings do get lost but I think love which bonds all relationships stays intact.