Every day's a Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is fast approaching but when and where it is celebrated is one for confused.com! Unlike Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas, Mother’s Day or Mothering Sunday falls on different dates in different countries every year, so it can be tricky keeping up. This year the day officially dedicated to mothers falls on March 10 which is the fourth Sunday of Lent and three weeks before Easter Sunday.

The day had its origins in the Middle Ages when children who had left their families to go into domestic service were given a day off to go home to their Mother church and visit their families. For many it was the only day in the year when they were given a break from servitude so it was much looked forward to as a change from domestic drudgery. The occasion became a celebration of spring with the servants picking posies on their route home to give to their mothers as gifts.

Mother’s Day has become far more secular and commercial these days and for many no longer holds a religious significance, but it is a wonderful way of celebrating those who gave birth to us or parent us and it is a day when many celebrate the deep bond between mothers and daughters and sons.

Ireland and Nigeria appear to be the only other countries celebrating Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday in Lent, with the majority now following America’s lead in dedicating the second Sunday in May as the official date to celebrate all things mothers.

The origin of Mother’s Day in the US began in 1907 when Anna Jarvis daughter of a peace activist who treated wounded soldiers during the American Civil War campaigned for a day to honour mothers. She held a memorial service to her late mother on the second Sunday in May and the idea was soon adopted by all the American States five years later. The then President Woodrow Wilson declared the day a national holiday in 1914 confirming its official May day date. Inspite of her fervent campaigning for recognition of the day, Anna did not like the commercialisation of the celebration, but protest or no protest she wasn’t going to win that battle – the giving and receiving of gifts, is just too much fun.

So out we go looking for traditional gifts, from flowers and fresh fruit bouquets to chocolates and perfume.

If you’re struggling for a novel gift, look no further than Be My Bear’s range of message bears. Our message bears and animals are the ultimate in personalised gifts with a 20 second voice recorder bearing the message you want to give your lovely mum, mum-in-law or the person who you have always recognised as mum. It’s so easy to record your message and if you make a mistake, don’t worry, you can erase it and start all over again. You can also change the battery in the voice recorder so that you don’t need to worry about the message ever being lost. Each of our message bears and animals comes with a “Life without you would be Unbear-able” card as a special extra.

You could always choose to just buy an individual voice box without the teddy and use it how you choose. Pop the voice recorder containing your personalised message into a biscuit tin full of cookies baked with love. Or make you own card cutting a hole for the voice chip and sending it as a message in a card as opposed to a bottle. If you are good at crafts, embroidery or needlework, go one step further and create a soft cuddly heart or pouch and pop your voice box into it.

Mother’s Day countdown begins now with cards and gifts already in the shops, so get organised well in advance then you’re not reduced to buying garage flowers or left over chocs on the supermarket shelves !

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