For a day with a concept as simple as showing honor and appreciation to one’s mother, Mother’s Day has a complicated history that touches areas of politics and religion in ways that are often deeply unsettling. Throughout this week I have seen a few people comment on the pagan nature of Mother’s Day as if it were something that was a given, never proven, and I thought that untangling the history of this day would be something that might help us to understand how to parse the difference between the three sorts of observances that we face. For those who are not aware, festivals and observances can be divided into three categories. The first are those that God commands, and that it is a sin not to observe–these days occur in the Bible and are spoken of in places like Leviticus 23. The second category are those historical festivals that are permitted to observe but where observance is not mandatory. In the Bible there would be festivals like Purim and Hanukkah, and this would also include national festivals where one can honor God for His works in human history, or where we show thanksgiving and gratitude for God for His divine providence. The third category are those festivals that God forbids, especially for their association with pagan practices that believers are forbidden to engage in.

Where does Mother’s Day fit in with all of this. The commercialization of Mother’s Day is something that we all ought to lament, but anything can be commercialized. Even the festivals of God can become tainted with motives of greed, as it was in the days of Jesus Christ when corrupt priests and their cronies controlled the moneychanging in the temple (where there were fraudulent exchange rates) and where there was a monopoly of sacrificial animals that led to profits for the people in charge. The commercialism did not make the festivals of God pagan, but such corrupt business activity was a sin nonetheless. There can be no doubt that Mother’s Day is a highly commercialized day. Whether one is dealing with the sale of flowers, cards, brunches, or gift cards that purport to honor mothers, some businesses profit greatly from this day. This phenomenon was true from the beginning, and the person most responsible for instituting Mother’s Day in the United States was herself upset by this process [1].

According to the official history of Mother’s Day in the United States, a woman named Anna Jarvis celebrated a memorial for her mother on the second Sunday in May in a small town in West Virginia and then promoted its observance until it was made an official holiday during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Quickly the festival became common around the world, especially as businesses saw a way to profit by selling products and services that would appeal specifically to mothers. Ms. Jarvis, in promoting her own (trademarked!) festival, did not mention any of the other abortive attempts to honor mothers in the United States, most of which were connected to radical feminist politics, such as “Mother’s Day for Peace,” an idea that never really took off, or Mothering Sunday, a custom held during the Fourth Sunday in Lent that appears to have significant pagan origins (including cakes). Interestingly enough, in those countries where Mothering Sunday was a fading pagan custom, the growing popularity of the American Mother’s Day custom often led to the revival of these local traditions. In ex-communist countries, there is a further wrinkle, as Mother’s Day is often celebrated on the International Day of Women, a feminist festival of objectionable origins, and in many Catholic countries Mother’s Day was connected with an idolatrous festival to the Virgin Mary. Still other countries (like Thailand) have connected Mother’s Day to the royal cult or to historical events like a massacre of women (in Bolivia). Many Arab countries, intriguingly, celebrate Mother’s Day in a very pagan way connected to the vernal equinox and the ancient Roman festival of Hilaria [2], a striking departure from their normal observances, considering the lunar nature of much of their calendar, which may be related to the importance of the mother goddess Cybele to Muslim worship (as it connects to their veneration of the Kaaba as well).

As I mentioned earlier, the history of Mother’s Day is complicated. That is because the simple act of honoring one’s mother, or seeking to make sure that there is at least one day a year where mothers are honored in society at large, quickly becomes complicated by history and tradition and can be easily captured by commercial interests for their own profit. Likewise, questions of honoring mothers also become complicated by concerns for the place of women in society and the local political and religious establishment. In examining whether it is appropriate to celebrate Mother’s Day, we have to answer a few questions for our own conscience’s sake. For example, does the fact that the heathen honor something make it inappropriate for the believer to honor it? Does the particular festival in question spring from historical roots or from idolatry and heathen religious practices? If the festival is commanded or permitted, are we celebrating it in a godly fashion? Given the fact that Mother’s Day varies so widely from country to country, the answer to these questions may depend on one’s place, for while honoring one’s mother (and father) are not objectionable, participating in a festival that is connected either to idolatrous regard for monarchs or for heathen festivals of times past would be wrong. The history of Mother’s Day in the United States, at least as it is currently known, does not seem to indicate a pagan origin, but that cannot be said for all countries. Likewise, not all practices connected with Mother’s Day are unobjectionable, as pink carnations take their symbolism from the tears of the Virgin Mary, a clearly pagan association [3]. Let us therefore be careful to honor our mothers but do so in a way that is unsullied by the ways of the heathen.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilaria

[3] http://www.ehow.com/list_5923374_symbolic-meanings-carnations.html