Sunday was Mother’s Day

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day but if most children did not bother to observe their mother’s day, it is because of the confusion that has been created by their adults. During the Spanish time, the equivalent of our present Mother’s Day was Laetera Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, when the Pope blesses the Golden Rose, an ornament in the form of a spray of roses, stem, leaves, decorated with gems. It was given to cities, countries as a token of appreciation for their loyal service. Some say that the custom actually evolved from the pre-Reformation tradition of visiting parish churches on that day. It was called Mothering Sunday and during the Spanish times, it was the custom for children to give presents to their mothers.

But our local Mother’s Day actually started in 1921 when the Ilocos Norte Women’s Club petitioned for an annual national Mother’s Day celebration. The then Acting Governor-General responded by arbitrarily designating the first Monday of December as the country’s official Mother’s Day. Fifty years later, President Ferdinand E. Marcos issued a proclamation declaring the first Sunday and first Monday of December as Father’s Day and Mother’s Day respectively. So what we celebrated last Sunday was the American Mother’s Day and the truth is that we don’t celebrate Mother’s Day at all because it never became part of our tradition.

If we want to have a Mother’s Day celebration, we must do two things: First, have a date that honors an outstanding Filipina mother and, here, we would like to suggest that it be the birthday of former First Lady Evangeline Macaraeg Macapagal. She is indeed an outstanding mother because she was married to a president and became the mother of another president. We know of no other woman in the world who can make a similar claim. But that is for the nation to decide.

Mother’s Day is intended to be observed through some distinct act of kindness, through a visit, a letter, gift as our special tribute to our mother. An indispensable part of the celebration should be the family reunion. The essence of womanliness is motherhood. All love starts and ends there. As stated by William Wallace, "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." Or in the words of Gaspard Marcurillod, "She can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take."

Time and again, we have said that in my generation the two greatest influences on every person’s life were, first, his family, then his school. This is no longer true of the present generation. The greatest influence on their lives is tri-media, where the present generation acquires its values. We must offset this and the way to start it is in the family. Pope John XXIII called the family "the first essential cell of humanity." Carson McCullers summarized it as "the we of me." That is why we must strengthen our Father’s Day and Mother’s Day traditions. Let us all agree on meaningful dates that are truly Filipino to commemorate the two occasions and have a standard form of practice that will make it a truly Filipino family tradition. The best place to propagate this is in the schools. Right now, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are not really a part of our tradition. This is because the dates of their celebrations have been changed so often. The Spaniards and the Americans failed totally in establishing a Father’s and Mother’s Day tradition in the Philippines. Are we going to fail too?