Mother’s Day passed totally uncelebrated

We have several days a year that at some time or other were designated as Mother’s Day, but Mother’s Day is celebrated by only a few families. The truth is that both Mother and Father’s Days were not celebrated during the Spanish period of our history. It was the province of Ilocos Norte that initiated a demand for an annual Mother’s Day celebration. The Ilocos Norte Women’s Club asked the American Governor-General to designate an annual date for a Mother’s Day celebration. Acting Governor-General Charles Yeater responded and assigned the first Monday of December as Mother’s Day. He instructed the Bureau of Education to organize the annual commemoration. The Bureau had already grown into the Department of Education and it changed the date of Mother’s Day to December 7 and added a father’s Day celebration on December 6.

But the past presidents also played their roles. In 1980, President Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed every first Sunday of December as Father’s Day with the following Tuesday as Mother’s Day. Then on June 8, 1988, President Corazon Aquino issued Proclamation No. 266 that changed the dates of the celebrations to every second Sunday of May for Mother’s Day and every third Sunday of June for Father’s Day. To confuse matters even more, President Joseph Estrada also changed both dates by signing Proclamation No. 58 on June 11, 1998, stipulating that both occasions should be celebrated together on every first Monday of December. So if people are confused as to the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day place in the calendar, we have Malacañang to blame. The worst thing is that they were all concerned with the dates of the celebrations, but the dates they chose had really no historical connection with any Filipino father or mother. To add to this, they all forgot to stipulate the most important thing about any celebration and that is how the occasion should be celebrated.

And so last Sunday was Mother’s Day but we really don’t know of any person or family who celebrated the great occasion. The Jews have a saying, "God could not be everywhere so He made mothers". What we need is a truly Filipino way to observe Mother’s Day. If a date has to be chosen, the date must be to honor a great Filipino mother and we have an excess of them.

Martin Luther wrote, ‘When Eve was brought unto Adam, we became filled with the Holy Spirit, and gave her the most sanctified, the most glorious of appellations. He called her Eve, that is to say, the Mother of All. He did not style her wife, but simply mother of all living creatures. In this consist the glory and the most precious ornament of woman.’

Let us evolve a truly Filipino celebration of Mother’s Day. Napoleon asked Madame Campan, ‘What is needed in order that the youth of France be well educated?’

‘Good mothers,’ was the answer.

Overwhelmed by the answer, Napoleon responded by saying, ‘Here is a system in one word!’

Honor thy Father and Mother.