All mother needs is smile on child's face

In a country like India, with diverse cultures, where we worship rivers as mother,we have goddess–Saraswati Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and nature,goddess lakshmi devi –goddess of wealth, prosperit, fortune, all these goddesses are worshiped as mothers –the moment we wake up in the morning. For thousands of years we have been celebrating a ten day festival, durga puja,honoring the divine mother Durga,in early October. It is a everyday ritual to pray mother goddess to make a good start of the day.And who teaches all these is our mother ,amma ,aai,ammi ..whichever way we call in any state of our county or other countries the sweetness is the same worldwide.

Raising a child needs real commitment and dedication and mothers play a lead role in this. Her efforts are countless towards her child, but when stepped out of home ,the child is questioned only about father’s name, from the time of his birth for birth certificate to the college certificate. to the marriage certificate-surprisingly they do not have space for mothers name. The picture in ancient india shows something else. In ancient India ,in Andhra Pradesh, during the satavahana rule the Satavahana kings generally used the name of their mothers as their initials.Kochiputra satakarni,kosikiputra satakarni,gotamiputra satakarni,vasisthiputra satakarni.These are some of the names of satavahana kings that we find both in coins and inscriptions.’kochi’,’kosiki’’gautami’,vasisthi’these were the kings mothers who were the crowned queens of the dynastyThe name ‘kochiputra satakarni’means that he was the son of queen ‘kochi’. This evidence provides sufficient strength to the fact that mothers were given a place of identity it that era.

A special day in the honor of mothers, Mothers Day is celebrated in India along with several countries around the world though on different dates. In a large number of countries including US, Mothers Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in the month of May, but in many other countries Mothers Day is celebrated in an entirely different time of the year. But what ever may be the date of Mother's Day around the world, the spirit is the same everywhere. Everywhere in the world mothers are respected for their extreme devotion towards their kids. And on Mother's Day children pay their humblest tribute to their mothers and thank them for giving them birth and providing them with the best of care and upbringing.The idea of official celebration of Mothers day in US was first suggested by Julia Ward Howe in 1872. An activist, writer and poet Julia shot to fame with her famous Civil War song, "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Julia Ward Howe suggested that June 2 be annually celebrated as Mothers Day and should be dedicated to peace. She wrote a passionate appeal to women and urged them to rise against war in her famous Mothers Day Proclamation, written in Boston in 1870. She also initiated a Mothers' Peace Day observance on the second Sunday in June in Boston and held the meeting for a number of years. Julia tirelessly championed the cause of official celebration of Mothers Day and declaration of official holiday on the day. Her idea spread but was later replaced by the Mothers' Day holiday now celebrated in May. Today Mothers Day is celebrated in several countries including US, UK, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan and Belgium.

The tradition of celebrating Mothers Day began much earlier in England than it started in USA. In fact England was the first country in the world to dedicate a day for mothers as early as 1600s. They called this day for mothers as 'Mothering Sunday'. (The festival has its roots in the practice wherein poor people in England send their little children to work as domestic servants or apprentice with the rich. At that time it was considered important by the people that these children, staying away from their families be allowed to visit their homes once in a year) .Mothers Day is celebrated in a big way in England. Children pay tribute to their mothers and thank them for all their love and support. Flowers record their maximum sale as people in England love to express their gratitude for their mothers by gifting them flowers more than anything else. Most popular flowers on Mothers Day in Great Britain are roses followed by carnations and chrysanthemums. In UK, there is also a tradition of making a rich almond cake for mothers called 'Mothering Cake' or 'Simnel Cake' on Mothers Day. In south Africa the most commonly used flowers on Mothers Day is the traditional carnation. People wear red or pink carnation for the mothers who are living while white carnation is used as a symbol of mothers who are dead. In South Africa, Mother's Day is taken as an opportunity to thank not just mothers but also grand mothers and women who are like mothers. As Mothers Day is a festival with strong emotional value, it has been commercialised to a large extent with compelling advertising strategies in the technologically advanced country of Canada. Sale of cards breaks all records on mothers day.

The list of countries and the way they celebrate the occassion is very long ,but the one thing in common ,is the universal love for mother and the drawback that many of us can see is the huge commercialization of this day.Spending huge money for expressing love for our mother makes less sense than expressing the same for her in other alternate ways.some very general things which come to everyone of our mind when we think of giving rest to our mother-preparing lunch or any simple recipe of her choice.Making card ourselves,doing these small things doesn’t mean a stop to all those high fi things like going to restaurant,costly cards etc…..

But it is for sure that even a small caring smile for her-with small treats will boost her day, and why only on this day a MOTHER deserves attention all year through.We can certainly surprise her with weekend small homemade treats and leave the big bang celebrations for MOTHERS DAY (and try not to make it a too commercialization day)