Today is Mother's Day in Greece. Or, more properly, it may be Mothering Sunday. I can't quite figure it out but there is a difference: Mothering Sunday is an old-established religious celebration of the mother church which has largely died out in some Western countries. Mother's Day is a modern American re-invention celebrating motherhood.
According to Wikipedia:
As the United States holiday was adopted by other countries and cultures, the date was changed to fit already existing celebrations honoring motherhood, such as Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom or, in Greece, the Orthodox celebration of the presentation of Jesus Christ to the temple (2 February of Julian Calendar). Both the secular and religious Mother Day are present in Greece. Mothering Sunday is often referred to as "Mother's Day" even though it is an unrelated celebration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day#Dates_around_the_world*
IF* I've figured this out correctly, the Julian date of 02 February 2015 equates to the Gregorian date 10 May 2015, although I understand Greece celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May, which this years happens to be 10 May. So, could be that today happens to be Mothering Sunday and Mother's Day out here.
In the UK, Mother's Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
If I get the time - and a memory upgrade - maybe I'll try to figure it out a bit more with some Julian - Gregorian date calculations.
So, there we go!
Info from Wikipedia:
Mothering Sunday /
Mother's DayFootnote:
The roots of the modern American Mother’s Day date back to the 19th century. In the years before the Civil War (1861-65), Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly care for their children.
The official Mother’s Day holiday arose in the 1900s as a result of the efforts of Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis. Following her mother’s 1905 death, Anna Jarvis conceived of Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children.
Following the success of her first Mother’s Day, Jarvis—who remained unmarried and childless her whole life—resolved to see her holiday added to the national calendar. Arguing that American holidays were biased toward male achievements, she started a massive letter writing campaign to newspapers and prominent politicians urging the adoption of a special day honoring motherhood... Her persistence paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
Anna Jarvis had originally conceived of Mother’s Day as a day of personal celebration between mothers and families. Her version of the day involved wearing a white carnation as a badge and visiting one’s mother or attending church services. But once Mother’s Day became a national holiday, it was not long before florists, card companies and other merchants capitalized on its popularity.
While Jarvis had initially worked with the floral industry to help raise Mother’s Day’s profile, by 1920 she had become disgusted with how the holiday had been commercialized. She outwardly denounced the transformation and urged people to stop buying Mother’s Day flowers, cards and candies. Jarvis eventually resorted to an open campaign against Mother’s Day profiteers, speaking out against confectioners, florists and even charities... By the time of her death in 1948 Jarvis had disowned the holiday altogether, and even actively lobbied the government to see it removed from the American calendar.
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/mothers-day
