…And Mother’s Day too
When May and June roll around every year, we’re suddenly all thinking about Mom and Dad. Flowers fly off the shelves, restaurants get booked solid, chocolates are bought, and we rack our brains for the perfect card. These days, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are such a big deal, commercialized event made to sell, sell, sell, just like any other. After all, why shouldn’t stores capitalize on our feelings just a little more? But have you ever stopped to think, “Where did these holidays actually come from?” You might be surprised. Turns out, the urge to honor our parents isn’t some modern invention. It’s old. Really old. We’re talking ancient, like pagan origin-old, back when folks worshiped gods and goddesses tied to the earth, the sky, and the rhythm of the seasons.
It’s a wild thought, isn’t it? That your last-minute brunch for Mom has a spiritual ancestor in a ritual for some long-forgotten earth goddess. But tracing these lines back shows us something fundamental about what it means to be human: we’ve always looked for ways to recognize the people and the powers that create and protect us.
Pagan Origin of Mom’s Big Day: From Earth Goddesses to a Daughter’s Devotion
Long before anyone had heard of a “Mother’s Day card,” people were celebrating the big-deal feminine power, the ultimate mom figure. Think about it: ancient civilizations were totally tuned into nature. They saw the earth giving life, feeding everyone, and they thought, “That’s a mother.” So, they worshiped mother goddesses.
Take the ancient Greeks. They had Rhea, mother to a whole crew of top-tier gods like Zeus. Celebrating her was about recognizing that original, creative spark. Then you had the Romans, who were big fans of Cybele, their “Magna Mater” or Great Mother. She wasn’t originally Roman; they adopted her from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). Her festivals, especially one called Hilaria in late March, weren’t quiet affairs. They were full-on celebrations marking winter’s end and the explosion of new life in spring. It makes sense, right? Spring is all about birth and renewal, just like motherhood. These weren’t just parties; they were a deep thank you to the force that kept the world going.
Fast forward a bit, across the water to the British Isles in the Middle Ages. A tradition called “Mothering Sunday” started to take hold. This was on the fourth Sunday of Lent. The idea was for people to go back to their “mother church”—the main church in their area, or even the one where they were baptized. It was a kind of spiritual homecoming. And, naturally, it became a day to honor their own mothers too. Young folks working as servants or apprentices would get the day off to visit, maybe bringing a small bouquet of wildflowers or a special cake, like a simnel cake. Even though it was part of the Christian calendar, it had that ancient feel of returning to your roots, of honoring where you came from.
So how did we get to the Mother’s Day we know in America? That’s largely thanks to one determined woman: Anna Jarvis. In the early 1900s, she wanted to honor her own mom, Ann Reeves Jarvis. Ann was a pretty amazing lady herself, organizing “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to improve health and sanitation and to try and heal the rifts after the Civil War. Anna’s vision was for a simple, heartfelt day of personal appreciation for what mothers do. She pushed hard, and by 1908, the first official Mother’s Day happened. Then, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it official: the second Sunday in May. Here’s a kicker, though: Anna Jarvis later hated what Mother’s Day became. She thought all the cards, candies, and commercial hype totally missed her original point. She even campaigned against it.
Dad’s Turn: Sky Gods, Sunshine, and a Daughter’s Love, Too
Okay, so the earth and its bounty got linked with mother goddesses. What about the sky? The sun? That powerful, protective vibe often got channeled into father gods. These weren’t just any gods; they were the big bosses, the protectors, the wise ones, the bringers of light and order.
Think about Zeus, the head honcho of the Greek gods, slinging thunderbolts from Mount Olympus. Or Jupiter, his Roman equivalent, laying down the law. Up north, the Vikings had Odin, the Allfather – a complex god of wisdom, war, and even poetry. The Celts? They revered figures like the Dagda in Ireland, who wasn’t just a father figure but also a symbol of plenty and skill. These weren’t just abstract ideas; these gods felt real, active, and essential for keeping the world from falling apart.
Now, picture the summer solstice. Longest day of the year, sun blazing at its absolute strongest. For many ancient cultures, this was a seriously big deal. It was prime time for celebrating everything linked to masculine energy, the sun’s power to make things grow, its sheer vitality. While there isn’t a straight, unbroken line from ancient sun festivals to modern Father’s Day, it’s hard to ignore the timing. We often celebrate Father’s Day in June, right around when the sun is at its peak. It’s like a faint, historical echo of those old sun-worshipping traditions, a nod to that powerful, masculine energy.
Getting Father’s Day officially on the calendar in the U.S. was a bit more of a slow burn than Mother’s Day. The big champion here was Sonora Smart Dodd, from Spokane, Washington. She heard a Mother’s Day sermon around 1909 and thought, “Hey, what about dads?” She was especially inspired by her own father, William Jackson Smart. He was a Civil War vet who raised Sonora and her five brothers and sisters all by himself after his wife died. Talk about a super-dad. Sonora worked tirelessly, and Washington state had its first official Father’s Day in 1910. But it took a long time for the rest of the country to catch on. Maybe people thought it wasn’t as sentimental, or maybe it just didn’t have the same immediate emotional pull for lawmakers. It wasn’t until 1972 – yeah, that late – that President Richard Nixon finally signed the law making the third Sunday in June a national holiday for dads.
So, What’s the Big Deal About These Old Stories?
When we’re caught up in the modern hustle of Mother’s and Father’s Day – the gifts, the brunches, the phone calls – it’s easy to just see them as, well, modern holidays. Maybe even a bit cooked up by card companies. But if you peel back the layers, you find something much deeper, something that connects us to people who lived thousands of years ago. The urge to say “thank you” to the people who brought us into the world, who looked after us, who gave us our first lessons in how to be – that’s not new. That’s human.
Knowing that these days have roots in ancient festivals for earth mothers and sky fathers doesn’t make our current celebrations any less special. If anything, it adds a whole new layer of meaning. It’s like realizing the song you love is a cover of an even older, classic tune. It connects you to a longer story.
These holidays, even with all the commercial glitz, tap into something ancient: our need to recognize the givers of life, the protectors, the guides. They’re about fertility and strength, the earth and the sky, the comforting hand and the guiding voice. So, next time you’re celebrating Mom or Dad, take a second. Think about Rhea and Zeus, about Mothering Sunday and Sonora Smart Dodd’s persistence. You’re not just giving a gift; you’re part of a tradition that’s been around for ages, a way of honoring the very essence of what it means to be family, connected to the cycles of life and the enduring power of love and gratitude. The flowers might come from a florist now, not a field, but the feeling? That’s timeless.
