Talk:Mother's Day

An event mentioned in this article is a May 9 selected anniversary (may be in HTML comment)

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Mary Worship?

What is this portion on "Roman Catholic Mary worship" doing in this article? Roman Catholics have never worshiped Mary, but even if this pointed 'debate' were to be had it certainly has no place in this article. Except that Mary was known as "The Mother of Jesus" and so is recognized on Mother's day..
MMMM... I might not get your point but I would disagree. Yes, the roman catholics are celebrating the Virgin Mary (in particular on August 15th). Are you arguing on the word WORSHIP ? 96.225.214.42 (talk) 15:02, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

International info needed

The article could use more info on non-USA recogntion and celebration of Mother's Day. -- Infrogmation 20:38 May 10, 2003 (UTC)

Agreed. Can some non-US contributors add some things? -- Zoe

Actually, like to see some more relevant USA/commercialisation info about this date, as these aspects are most likely why the article exists and is read. Missing is reference to Anna Jarvis; her efforts to commemorate the anniversary of her mothers death as a day of national recognition for mothers. And subsequently her regrets upon seeing the overt commercialisation that evolved a score of years after her success of doing so. --oom ...................... If Mother's Day falls on a sunday, how can it be a holiday?

Mother's Day exists in other countries than those addressed in the article. For instance in Italy and France and date may differ : May 11 in Italy and May 25 in France this year. Ericd 10:46 May 14, 2003 (UTC)

The list of dates at the end of the article is very interesting and useful but it seems odd that the UK's mother's day is singled out as being unconnected to the US mother's day. Does this mean that the others are all in some way connected? It seems unlikely but I know little about their origins. --Kazuhiko

doing a quick check before tomorrow (the first Sunday in May), it turns out that, this year at least, South Africa is holding Mother's Day on the second Sunday rather than the first as indicated -- what sources do we have for non-US dates? Kwill 17:41, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

Usually the sources are contributions from Wikipedians from those countries. I live in Poland, so I inserted Mother's Day date in Poland. I believe others did similarly. Przepla 19:02, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

Disputed

I have heard from numerous sources that the number one day for suicides by mothers is on mothers day. Anyone have any sources for this? (if this turns out to be true, we need to go find a mother who has a child that does not call and give her a hug!)

"Baking a cake is one way to show a mother how much you appreciate her." Disputed... Agreed? --Domthedude001 21:06, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

It is "one way to show a mother how much you appreciate her." Therefore, I think the tag should be removed. I dont think however that the cake is the best way to illustrate Mothers Day. -Reuvenk_[T][C] 22:14, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, yes, a cake is "one way." So is taking your mom to a NASCAR event. So what? Commercially, I've read (somewhere) that the No. 1 way of "celebrating" is to buy chocolate. --Michael K. Smith 13:59, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

(This is my first entry. Please let me know if I am doing anything incorrectly.) All of the above suggestions are GREAT IDEAS! May I offer some additional suggestions? As some mothers are "high maintenace" and some are low maintenance, how about finding out what each unique mother would like, either by observation or (gasp)asking her what means the most to her?

In my limited 70 years of experience, most mothers I know would simply like to know they did somethings right and that their children appreciated the efforts. No matter what the gift, a sincere thank you means the most.LegacyCreator (talk) 20:09, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Mother's Day vs Mother's day

Why do we have two articles on the same thing? ---FoodMarket ^talk! 19:22, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

We don't, they redirect. However, the main page should not be "mother's day" it should be "mothers' day" or just "mothers day". "Mother's Day" implies there is just one mother out there, and the day is just for her!

I agree; "Mother's Day" should redirect to "Mothers' Day" and not the other way around. 195.248.125.91 14:23, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

I also agree, but I don't know how to actually make the change. To be fair, though, I don't believe I've seen anyone write mothers' day, even if that is technically correct. Maybe this is a case where the incorrect spelling is the popularly accepted one, and therefore (by the magic of descriptive rather than prescriptive language rules), maybe Mother's Day is the right way to spell it. --128.151.253.249 12:50, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually, in Portugal the day is called "Dia da Mãe", singular. Minor detail, maybe.--portugal 23:07, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

But doesn't the Portugese translate to "Day of the Mother," referencing all mothers, rather than "Day of a Mother," referencing just one? I agree that Mothers' Day is probably correct, but that Mother's Day may be what we need to accept as common use. Same problem as Programmer's Day v. Programmers' Day, Father's Day v. Fathers' Day or Fathers Day. -- Lisasmall 16:40, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I would think that Mothers' Day, rather than Mother's Day, is more logical, and also the more commonly used, at least in Australia, where I live. Alpheus 07:34, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think that there is any argument that both "Mothers' Day" and "Fathers' Day" are the only correct uses. They are regularly used in respectable publications and follow grammatical logic. Additionally, consider "Children's Day" briefly mentioned in this article - if the preferred form were "Mother's Day" it should be "Child's Day" which is patently absurd. Unless someone can provide a single convincing piece of evidence, it is clear that the main articles should be at "Mothers' Day" and "Fathers' Day" with "Mother's Day" and "Father's Day" redirecting. Turkeyphan^t 13:39, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

There are arguments, and there is evidence that "Mother's Day" is correct. A personal argument: I have only one mother, and as far as I am concerned, Mother's Day is her day.

More objective arguments are given below in the discussion about the proposed move. Several dictionaries only know "Mother's Day". Whether this is logical or not can be (with sources) discussed in the article, but the title should follow the "usual" use of the phrase in the English language. When there are several possible "usual" uses, I think it is bad manners to rename the article to change from one correct name to another.

--Austrian 13:37, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

What if one of the "usual" uses has more reasons to suggest it is correct? Turkeyphan^t 00:27, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

First, we do not count reasons here. If anything, we weigh them.

Second: it is not about "what is correct", but rather "is the current version incorrect?". According to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English), we (generally) do not change British to American spelling, nor conversely. I think a similar policy should apply here.

Third: I do not know whether "Mother's" or "Mothers'" is more common overall (See WP:COMMONNAME). But on wikipedia, there are only a handful of pages that link to Mothers' Day, whereas links to Mother's Day are much more common. --Austrian 20:58, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Women's Day vs International Women's Day

Likewise, is it necessary to have two links to the same article? These two links do just that.

Rhesusman 7:22, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Inga Sander??

What's the random link to Inga Sander under March 8th about? I can't find any resources as to what this is... and its certainly not a country. Thoughts? Insomniacity 21:23, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

I don't know when it went away, but the Sander link is no longer present. -- Lisasmall 16:45, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Children's Day?

How come parents get holidays in the USA but children don't? It would be great if there was a day where kids--and only kids--get gifts! There is such a day in other countries, but Mother's Day and Father's Day exist in the USA. Children's Day, however, .

November 14, Birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru, is observed as Children's day in India. FLaRN2005 16:33, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Christmas/Easter/Birthdays where children get lavished with gifts compared to their parents. 84.70.117.5 06:41, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

and most of the rest of the year —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.110.223 (talk) 16:16, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Mother's Day in South Africa

April is known as the holiday month in South Africa because we have so much to celebrate, then we have May Day and Mothers Day is on the second Sunday because we have so many other days to.., is it too.., or tutu? Gregorydavid 07:34, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Non-Christian Calendars

I'm presuming we're listing dates according to the relevant calendar (See Israel). Is anyone able to track down data on the Muslim calendar for the entry on Mother's Day in Iran?samwaltz 11:46, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Can't find "Mothers Day" in Iran, But found this:

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/145/story_14548_1.html Can Muslims Celebrate Mother's Day? I found this article on Islamics' view of the US version of Mothers Day. Maybe it is helpful. I cannot find a single reference for the day in Iran or on the Muslim calendar. I suspect they feel the same about a day for women as they do about women?
I would like to know more. The reference is found here for the entire search: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Muslim+Mother%27s+Day&btnG=Search cpswarrior 16:24, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Putting your obvious dislike for Islam aside, there is a Mother's Day in Iran. I don't know the date but my father sends his mother a card each year for Mother's Day. And on that note, though Iran is an Islamic Republic it does not follow the lunar calendar. It follows the solar calendar and it's year is 365 days long. Heymon32 19:21, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Would love to see some criticisms

I don't think I'm the only one in the world who finds all these Hallmark holidays to be a little mawkish. I'd love to see the addition of a section critiquing the institution of Mother's Day -- I'd add it myself but I know it'd be way too POV. :)

How about this as an Anti-Mothers-Day Hallmark Card. "She brought you into this world ... but try not to hold it against her!" :))

- I don't know if there are any criticims worthy of publication, but it is interesting to note that in the past few years there have been more and more emotionally neutral Mother's day cards being produced. While they are not like "She brought you into this world ... but try not to hold it against her!" (which is very funny) they are also not too smarmy "your are the most important person in my life" either. I think it is great to give the consumers a choice in the emotional level of Mother's day cards. Not every one has the same relationship with their mother. Yodar Critch (talk) 14:53, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

Proposed move

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the debate was no consensus for move. Joelito (talk) 15:48, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Mother's Day to Mothers Day. The day is for all mothers, not just one mother, as the current title suggests. Mothers Day (without the apostrophe) is a more appropriate title. FortDeck 01:47, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one sentence explanation and sign your vote with ~~~~

• Support. Per my reasons above. FortDeck 01:56, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
• Oppose. It's spelled "Mother's Day" in Merriam-Webster. We shouldn't be in the business of establishing new names for things, even if we think the new name makes more sense. I'd consider changing my opinion if someone could demonstrate a similarly credible authority backing an alternative spelling. — Knowledge Seeker দ 03:30, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
• Oppose per reason given above. Crumbsucker 06:18, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
• Oppose. RHD2 and World Book also list it as "Mother's Day". Now, who's going to edit the cake? NapoliRoma 07:59, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
  • It's a redirect cake. --SigPig 05:42, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
• Support. The apostrophe is indeed unnecessary. Voortle 17:17, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

You could argue that the dot in India.Arie's name is unnecessary. It's still the name she goes by. The article title should reflect the name of the holiday, and this vote isn't to change the name of the holiday, which is indeed "Mother's Day" per many credible authorities. --NapoliRoma 17:38, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

• Oppose as above. Besides, from my grammar lessons I seem to recall that a day for all mothers would be called Mothers' Day? --Qviri (talk) 19:45, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
• Oppose. And Qviri's correct. -AjaxSmack 18:45, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
• Support. There's no apostrophe in the Mothers Day cake picture. We don't need one in the article title either. Having one suggests that it's about a single mother, rather than mothers. Hardee67 19:49, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
  • So according to your logic, we should move the genius article to genious since it's commonly misspelled that way? And it is just about one mother — last I checked an average person had one mother. --Qviri (talk) 21:25, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Where did you get the idea that the holiday was about unwed mothers? --SigPig 05:42, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

As long as we're changing the name of the holiday itself, I propose we merge it with Father's Day and call the new holiday Parent Day -- by omitting the possessive, we can neatly sidestep the whole issue. If this is a success, we can later merge all holidays, call the result Holiday and have it extend from January 1 through December 31. That way we can all stay home and edit Wikipedia every day, hurrah! --NapoliRoma 15:05, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

• Oppose. The most common usage seems to be "Mother's Day." See also American Heritage Dictionary and Encyclopaedia Britannica. One could have in the first line "Mother's Day (also called Mothers' Day)..." or some such. I believe "Mothers Day" (no 'postrophe) to be, as King Arthur said, "right out." --SigPig 05:42, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
• Oppose. It is over understood that one has only one mother. (Although currently it is possible to have more then one mother for several unorthodox cultural reason, but that isn't in question...) We celebrate "our mother's day", not everyone else's mothers.--Gakhandal 05:49, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Could whoever wrote "In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honour of those mothers whose sons had died in war (with specific reference to The Great War, now known as World War I)" please clarify? The Great War (WW I) started in Europe in July 1914 and the US did not get involved until 1917, so if Wilson declared this holiday in May of 1914, this does not compute. Or at least, not the part about "specific reference to The Great War." -- TIA.70.56.20.39 15:43, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Is this vandalism?

Hi. I took notice that Mother's day in Russia is stated here as the last Sunday in June, whereas in Japanese Wikipedia it is explained as the last Sunday in November. In older version, this article on English Wikipedia does say that it is the last November Sunday.

I tracked the edit where the change occurred [1].

Now I see that this IP anon, which made only this edit, made a lot of changes. Could this IP be vandalizing the edit?

I have little clue, but if you see Thailand's Mother's day, it is explained as the birthday of Sirikit, which is Aug 12, according to the Wikipedia article on her. Why is this IP changing the Mother's day from Aug 12 to Feb 12, then?

Similarly, Korean Parent's Day is May 8, but the IP changed it to May 5.

I thought I would note this in case some others can volunteer to further check the accuracies of the changes made in this edit.

Tomos 13:40, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Broken links (notes)

The notes don't appear to link to anywhere. --Bilge [TC] 00:01, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Relation to Gynaikratia?

The article makes a mention-in-passing to the ancient Greek celebrations of Cybele, and Gaia; and their analogies to the modern "Mother's Day" holiday.

I'm curious, however, as to a possible relation with the modern Greek holiday of Gynaikratia, where womanhood in general is exalted and appreciated, (and not motherhood per se).

Is there anybody familiar enough with Gynaikratia to support (or discredit) a connection to Mother's Day? Pine 21:09, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Government recognition

I would like to see a mention of government recognition added to the article. In most locations, I believe MD is simply a folk-holiday without administrative recognition. Is MD recognised by the US government? Various state governments? By other national governments? Or is it simply celebrated commercially/traditionally? samwaltz 18:07, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

No, Mother's Day is not an "official" holiday in the U.S. Here there are Federal holidays (Christmas, July 4th, etc), when your mail doesn't get delivered, government offices are closed at all levels, and practically everyone is off from school & work, nationwide. And then there are state holidays, which, naturally, vary from state to state (Texas Independence Day in Texas, Mardi Gras here in Louisiana, etc), and for which local government offices are closed, and which are also days off from school & work. And then there are loads of what you call "folk holidays" (good coinage), like Halloween and Mother's Day, which are widely celebrated according to various customs but which are not in any way "official." I don't believe Mother's Day is presently an official holiday in any of the states -- except that it's observed on a Sunday, so most businesses and schools and offices are already closed. --Michael K. Smith 14:10, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

It is official in this sense: in 1914 Congress passed a law, which WIlson signed on May 8, 1914, "designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day," and authorizing and requesting that Wilson issue a proclamation "calling upon the government officials to display the United States flag on all buildings, and the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

So, if you see any government building without a flag on Mother's Day, they're breaking the law. Dpbsmith (talk) 17:12, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

When is Mother's day?

I think the actual date for Mother's day should be mentioned at the beginning of the article. Brian Pearson 16:43, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

• The problem with mentioning the 'actual date' is that it changes year to year and some countries havefixed dates, some don't. --Tikuko 12:44, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Somebody could just change it from year to year. Or at least put this year's mother's day next to the US entry in the 'Mother's Days in various parts of the world' table
• I do not think it would make sense to list all the possible dates for the current year at the beginning. Adding the current date in the table is more reasonable. But "second Sunday in May" is very easy to look up in any calendar; wikipedia is not a calendar.--Austrian 20:59, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Merge/History

This article was originally "Mother's Day". There has been some discussion about moving it to "Mothers' Day" in April/May 2006, and March/May 2007. A proposed move in July 2006 failed.

Austrian 11:11, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

There's nothing to merge. Mothers' Day was an unnecessary fork that was causing confusion, so I redirected it back to Mother's Day and fixed the double redirects that caused. WP:COMMONNAMES dictates that we use the most common punctuation, even if some people find it incorrect. Powers ^T 15:02, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Err, umm, actually the vast majority of the edit history appears to be at Mothers' Day. Not sure exactly how that came to pass, but the edit history really should be merged. older ≠ wiser 03:07, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Here is what happened:

1. May 6, 13:55: User:Alain Vey moves "Mother's Day" to "Mothers' Day", with summary "correct grammar as per talk and wiki specs", leaving a "redirect" behind, and taking the history to "Mothers' Day". "Mother's Day" starts a new history.
2. May 6, 17:29: User:85.102.195.199 (apparently) uses cut-and-paste to replace the "redirect" by a copy of the article. No edit summary.
3. May 6 - May 9: Wikipedians edit both articles.
4. May 9, 15:00: User:LtPowers replaces content of "Mothers' Day" by a redirect to "Mother's Day", citing "WP:COMMONNAME".

--Austrian 21:34, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Influenced by Anna Marie Jarvis?

I've been trying to unscramble the relationship between Howe's "Mother's Day for Peace" and Anna Jarvis' "Mother's Day."

Although the mother of Anna Jarvis, Anna Reeves Jarvis, did organize Mothers' Day Work Clubs to improve health and sanitation in her region, and although they assisted both Union and Confederate encampments in combatting typhoid fever and later help reconcile families split by the war, I haven't seen anything about her having influenced Julia Ward Howe. Is there a source for this?

I'm beginning to think that there's a sort of emerging myth to the effect that "Mother's Day was founded by Howe as an antiwar, almost feminist event, which was gradually co-opted by the forces of sentimentality," whereas my impression is that Howe's and Anna Jarvis' efforts were really quite separate; Howe founded a "Mother's Day for Peace," it died out, and then forty years later Anna Jarvis found a completely different "Mother's Day."Dpbsmith (talk) 01:19, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Mother's Day is the Second Sunday in May in the USA

For those of you who foolishly thought you might learn that simple fact from the article. Don't forget to call your mom. DonPMitchell 18:54, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. If you cannot determine what day Mother's Day is on by reading the article's gigantic table showing what day Mother's Day is on, then indeed you are foolish. :-) --Miken2005 21:13, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Mother's Day in Bulgaria

Does someone happen to know why Bulgaria was put down under the United States date (second Sunday of May) in addition to what I thought mother's day was (8 March)? Eeyore22 02:23, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Date

I put down Australia to begin with! Auroranorth 11:48, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Spain

Why is Spain twice? In the Spanish version of this page it is in May, not December. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.102.251.165 (talk) 17:44, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

The correct day on Spain is first sunday of May, I deleted the december entry. --Enric Naval (talk) 10:40, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Step Mother's Day?

We have Mother's Day, Grandparent's Day, and there's even supposed to be a Mother-In-Law's Day (somewhere near Halloween to tie in with all the stereotypical MIL jokes, I suppose); however, is there a Step Mother's Day in the USA?LegacyCreator (talk) 20:29, 16 March 2008 (UTC)