Kids in Prague

Mother’s Day May 10th, 2009

Activities, Just for Mums, Useful Information on 04 May 2009 by Darina

Mums love to have a gift that comes from the heart. Not only should we remember our own Mum but the good news is most of us are also mums deserving of a treat on this special day. Mother’s Day is a time of commemoration and celebration for Mum. It is a time of breakfast in bed, family gatherings, crayon scribbled “I Love You’s” and thank you cards from your Kids fathers.
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History may be a bit dull for some but until now I never really knew how Mothers Day became official. After researching the origins it also made me realise that sometimes we have to fight for our beliefs and dreams in order for them to become true.

In the US and Canada the modern Mother’s Day holiday was created by Anna Jarvis as a day for each family to honor its mother and it’s now celebrated on various days in many places around the world. In the US It falls on the second Sunday of May. Easy to remember. It began nearly 150 years ago when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it “Mother’s Work Day.”

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial Mother’s Day. There are many days for men, but none for Mothers.” Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen to create a special day to honor mothers. In 1914 Anna’s hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday.

The second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out with family. So that makes me suggest you celebrate and treat Mum to one of the many brunches on offer around town such as Movenpick Sunday brunch or Hergetova Cihelna’s Sunday Brunch  or Radisson SAS Sunday Brunch .

In the UK the earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday. Mothering Sunday is not a fixed day because it is always the middle Sunday in Lent (which lasts from Ash Wednesday to the day before Easter Sunday). This means that Mother’s Day in the UK will fall on different dates each year and sometimes even fall in different months.

Young girls and boys ‘in service’ (maids and servants) were only allowed one day off to visit their family each year, this was usually on Mothering Sunday. Eventually it became a custom to bring a present for their Mums, mostly flowers. I would die of missing my boys with just one visit a year - how cruel.

The most favoured cake to bake on Mothers Day was - and still is in some families - the Simnel Cake. By baking this cake people honoured both their Mothers and the Church. The Simnel Cake is a fruit cake. A flat layer of marzipan (sugar almond paste) is placed on top of and decorated with 11 marzipan balls representing the 12 apostles minus Judas, who betrayed Christ.

If you volunteer to bake on YOUR DAY here is a recipe for Simnel Cake (or send it to someone else to bake it for you :-):

      Ingredients:
      300g/10oz self raising flour
      1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
      110g/4oz butter or margarine
      110g/4oz brown sugar
      2 tablespoons of golden syrup
      350g/12oz mixed dry fruit
      2 eggs
      approx. 100 ml milk to mix

      700g Marzipan
      2 tablespoons of icing sugar for decoration

Oven temperature: 150 °C 325 °F Gas Mark 3

I hope you have a wonderful Mothers Day and that you will be treated as a Queen on the day. Remember to put your feet up, relax have some chocolates and remind yourself how important you are to your whole family. To Non-Mothers: make the effort to let her know how much you care and if you have some issues as often mothers and daughters have, maybe this is the day to let go for the sake of all the care and love she gave you.