Gifts for UK Mother's Day - 14 March

Mother's Day is a special day to honour mummy dearest, whose unconditional love and big and small sacrifices have made our childhood and growing up years so snug and warmly secure.

Nowadays, we celebrate mum's special role in our lives by giving Mother's Day gifts. But, Mother's Day has a long and interesting history. It was celebrated by the ancient Greeks who set aside a day in the year to honour Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.

During the beginning of the 17th century, the early Christians in England earmarked a day to worship Mary, the mother of Christ. Soon, a religious order included all mothers in England in this celebration. Consequently, the 4th Sunday after Lent was observed as Mothering Sunday in the UK. Till today, there is no fixed date for Mothering Sunday since the day always falls on the middle Sunday in Lent.

Mothering Sunday is also known by other names in the UK -- Refreshment Sunday, Pudding Pie Sunday or Mid-Lent Sunday. Since Mother's Day always fell in the middle of Lent, rules were relaxed for this day in honour of all mothers.

In the USA, soon after the American Civil War, a young social activist, Julia Ward Howe, horrified by the bloody aftermath of the Civil War as well as the Franco-Prussian War, penned her famous Battle Hymn of the Republic in 1870. This is commonly believed to be the genesis of the future Mother's Day. She actively advocated that 2 June be celebrated as 'Mother's Day for Peace'. This practice continued for at least 10 years.

Decades later, another young woman, Anna Jarvis, took up the cudgels on behalf of all mothers and pushed for an official holiday on the occasion of Mother's Day in the US. Her persistent efforts bore fruit and the first ever Mother's Day was observed on May 10, 1908 in the Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia.

The turning point came on May 9, 1914, when US President Woodrow Wilson officially announced for the first time that Mother's Day would be observed each year on the Second Sunday in May and would henceforth be a national holiday.

The most popular flowers on Mother's Day in the UK are roses, carnations and chrysanthemums. In England, there is also the tradition of baking a rich fruit and marzipan cake for mum on Mother's Day. It is called the 'Mothering Cake' or 'Simnel Cake'. Of course, many of these traditions have given way to the simple giving or sending of gifts or flowers to mum -- along with a visit for one of her famous Sunday roasts!

Today, Mothering Sunday or Mother's Day has become hugely commercialised, with flowers, cards and gifts for mummy becoming mandatory. Even so, it is a day that helps tighten the bonds between all mothers and their children who may be scattered far away from the nest.