It was a father who advocated Mother’s Day in May

MANILA, Philippines - The celebration of Mother’s Day is rooted in antiquity but it was more of the honoring of the concept of motherhood rather than a personal honoring of our mothers. The latter only came to being in the 17th century when the Church of England declared the fourth Sunday of Lent Mothering Day, a day dedicated to all mothers. This special day looked kindly on the working class, who spent their lives away from home as servants or as workers. But on this day, they were allowed to go back to their hometowns to visit their families. 

The present practice of celebrating Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May was the fruit of the labors of Anna Jarvis who wanted to honor her mother who, during the American Civil War, organized a group of mothers to nurse the wounded soldiers from both sides and save lives. Even after the war, she used her mothers’ club as an instrument for peace by organizing Mothers Friendship Day which brought together families that had been torn apart by the war.

When the elder Jarvis died, her daughter vowed to continue her mother’s peacemaking work by campaigning for an annual Mother’s Day. The rest, as they say, is history.

In the Philippines, Mother’s Day used to be celebrated on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. But since that day is also a very important Catholic feast, the celebration of Mother’s Day was often treated as an afterthought.

This only changed in 1980 when Samie Lim, founding president and chairman emeritus of the Philippine Franchise Association (PFA), advocated that the celebration be moved to the second week of May, just as Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world. “One of the main reasons for this change,” Mr. Lim reveals, “is so that OFW mothers will no longer feel left out when Mother’s Day is celebrated in their host countries.”

In a way, the Mother’s Day celebration in the Philippines is a special salute to the working class, especially the OFWs, who have sacrificed so much not only for their families, but to the entire Filipino nation.