Mothers Day Facts

MOTHER'S DAY CELEBRATIONS AROUND THE WORLD:

More than forty-six countries around the globe have a special day when they pay tribute to mothers. Mother's Day is not celebrated on the same date in all countries.
England for instance, celebrates Mother’s Day on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Belgium celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May.
In Cameroon, Mother's Day is celebrated on the last Sunday in May. On that day, mothers are chosen to lead the worship service in Lutheran churches.
In Mexico, Mother's Day is celebrated on May 10th. It is very common for mothers to be serenaded the night before with mariachis or other types of music. In schools, children prepare dances, poems, songs, plays and presents to honor their mothers. It is a popular day to treat mother to a dinner out or for someone else to prepare a special dinner at home.
In Egypt, Lebanon and most other Arab nations, Mother's Day is celebrated on the 21st of March. Families usually gather for a special celebration and give gifts to their mother to honor her. In Egypt, an "ideal mother" is selected and honored for that year.
Both Argentina and India celebrate Mother's Day in October. In Argentina, it is the second Sunday of the month, while in India a 10-day festival is held in honor of mothers in early October.
Mother's Day is celebrated on December 22nd in Indonesia. It is common to send flowers or clean the house for mother on this day. A special dinner is prepared to honor her as well.

History and Facts about Mothers Day

The modern-day origins of Mother's Day can be attributed to two women – Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis, both were important in establishing Mothers Day in the United States. Other sources also say that Juliet Calhoun Blakely initiated Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, in the late 1800s. Her sons paid tribute to her each year and urged others to honor their mothers.

Around 1870, Julia Ward Howe called for Mother's Day to be celebrated each year in June. Mother's Day was initially celebrate June 2, and Howe funded the celebrations. Those celebrations died out after she stopped footing the bill, although Boston continued them. They continued to be held in Boston for about 10 years under her sponsorship, but died out after that. Julia Ward Howe staged an unusual protest for peace in Boston, by celebrating a special day for mothers. She wanted to call attention to the need for peace by pointing out mothers who were left alone in the world without their sons and husbands after the bloody Franco-Prussian War.

In 1907, Anna Jarvis held a private Mother's Day celebration in memory of her mother, Ann Jarvis, in Grafton, West Virginia. In 1908, she played a key role in arranging a church service that attracted 407 children and their mothers. A Mother’s Day International Association was founded in 1912 to promote the holiday in other countries. Mother’s Day has grown increasingly popular since then and the observance became official in 1914.

Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia who started Mother's Day celebrations also filed a lawsuit in an effort to stop the over-commercialization of Mother's Day. She lost her fight. Anna had hoped for a day of reflection and quiet prayer by families, thanking God for all that mothers had done.

Japan's Imperial family trace their ancestry to Omikami Amaterasu, the Mother of the World.
In 1873, women in 18 American cities held Mother’s Day for Peace gatherings.
Ancient Egyptians believed that 'Bast' was the mother of all cats on Earth, and that cats were sacred animals.
Eve is considered as the ‘Mother of All the Living’ in the Bible.
The origin of the word "mother" can be traced back to the Latin word 'mater'.
In the vast majority of the world's languages, the word for "mother" begins with the letter M.
Mother’s Day is the third most popular holiday in the world, second to only Christmas and Easter.
NASCAR has only run two races on Mother’s Day. Once for weather, it was raining on the Saturday preceding Mother’s Day in 2007 at Darlington. And back in 1986 at the Winston All Star race, Atlanta.
On April 9, 2003, Satyabhama Mahapatra, a 65-year-old retired schoolteacher in India, became the world's oldest mother when she gave birth to a baby boy. Satyabhama and her husband had been married 50 years, but this is their first child. The baby was conceived through artificial insemination using eggs from the woman's 26-year-old niece, Veenarani Mahapatra, and the sperm of Veenarani's husband.
24.8 is the median age of women when they give birth for the first time - meaning one-half are above this age and one-half are below. The median age has risen nearly three years since 1970.
A woman becomes pregnant most easily at the age of eighteen or nineteen, with little real change until the mid twenties. There is then a slow decline to age thirty-five, a sharper decline to age forty-five and a very rapid decline as the women nears menopause.
The odds of a woman delivering twins is 1-in-33. Her odds of having triplets or other multiple births was approximately 1-in-539.
When the female embryo is only six weeks old, it makes preparations for her motherhood by developing egg cells for future offspring. (When the baby girl is born, each of her ovaries carries about a million egg cells, all that she will ever have).
August is the most popular month in which to have a baby, with more than 360,000 births taking place that month in 2001.
Tuesday is the most popular day of the week in which to have a baby, with an average of more than 12,000 births taking place on Tuesdays during 2001.
In Yugoslavia, Mother’s Day is known as ‘Materitse’, ‘Materice’ and on this day, there is a strange trend of children tying up their mother, releasing her only when she has given them sweets or other goodies.
In France, Mother’s Day is referred to as ‘Fete des Meres’.
We all know that Mother Earth is also known by the term—Terra Firma. This term is a Latin translation of some of the lines from Homer’s greatest poems.
In Britain, around five hundred years ago, there was a Mother called Mother Shipton. This mother was a Prophetess and could see future. In fact, it was she who predicted that another Queen Elizabeth would sit on the throne of England (Queen Elizabeth II).
Do you know that ancient Egyptians considered cats to be sacred animals and that that ‘Bast’ was the mother of all cats on Earth?
An amazing fact about Mother’s Day Trivia is that all the Chinese family names begin with a sign that means—mother. This is a great way to pay tribute to their mothers who have passed away.
In Hinduism, Hindu scripture acknowledges the Great Mother—Kali Ma, with the invention of writing through alphabets, pictographs and beautiful sacred images.

From the Animal Kingdom

A female oyster over her lifetime may produce over 100 million young.
A mother giraffe often gives birth while standing, so the new born's first experience outside the womb is a 1.8-meter (6-foot) drop.
Just like people, mother chimpanzees often develop lifelong relationships with their offspring.
Kittens are born both blind and deaf, but the vibration of their mother's purring is a physical signal that the kittens can feel - it acts like a homing device, signaling them to nurse.

Top 5 gifts expected to be given in U.S. for 2010

Rank 1 - Card (81.5%)

Rank 2 - Flowers (65.2%)

Rank 3 - Special Outing- meal (51.8%)

Rank 4 - Gift Certificate (34.1%)

Rank 5 - Clothing (28.4%)

Note: These gifts might be stand-alone or given in conjunction with something else.

Fun Facts about Mothers

72% of moms with children over 1-year-old work (about the same as childless women) , vs. 39% in 1977
55% of moms with a child under 1-year-old work, vs. 31% in 1976
Moms with a full-time job spend 13 hours working at the office or at home on family chores
Diaper Changes: 7,300 by baby’s 2nd birthday
Giving Attention: Preschooler requires mom’s attention once every 4 minutes or 210 times / day
Taking Care: Preschooler moms spend 2.7 hrs / day on primary childcare, vs. 1.2 hours for dads
Chores: Women average 2.2 hrs / day, vs. 1.3 hrs / day for men
Laundry: 88% is done by moms, totaling 330 loads of laundry & 5,300 articles of clothing each year
Least Favorite Chore: Vacuuming the stairs