■母亲节的历史
History of Mother’sDay

◎Lewis CarroII

The first celebrations in honor of mothers were held in the spring in ancient Greece. They paid tribute to Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 17th century, England honored mothers on “Mothering Sunday,” celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent.

In the United States, Julia Ward Howe suggested the idea of Mother’s Day in 1872. Howe, who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, saw Mother’s Day as being dedicated to peace.

Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia is credited with bringing about the official observance of Mother’s Day. Her campaign to establish such a holiday began as a remembrance of her mother, who died in 1905 and who had, in the late 19th century, tried to establish “Mother’s Friendship Days” as a way to heal the scars of the Civil War.

Two years after her mother died, Jarvis held a ceremony in Grafton, W. Va., to honor her. She was so moved by the proceedings that she began a massive campaign to adopt a formal holiday honoring mothers. In 1910, West Virginia became the first state to recognize Mother’s Day. A year later, nearly

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这个节日最早出现在古希腊，而现代的母亲节则起源于美国，为每年5月的第二个星期日。母亲们在这一天通常会收到礼物，人们将康乃馨献给母亲；而在中国，萱草花被视为母亲花，又叫忘忧草。

在古希腊的某个春天，人类举行了第一场纪念母亲的庆典，以此歌颂众神之母瑞亚。17世纪的英格兰，人们在每年大斋期的第四个周日——“拜望双亲日”都会向母亲致敬。

在美国，《共和国赞歌》的作词人朱莉娅·沃德·荷，在1872年建议设立母亲节，以向和平献礼。

不过，母亲节能正式成为法定节假日，还要归功于费城的安娜·贾维斯。她之所以游说人们设立节日，初衷只是为了纪念自己的母亲，因为她母亲在1905年去世之前，即19世纪末，一直致力于设立“母亲友谊日”，以抚慰南北战争带给人们的创伤。

在母亲去世两年后，贾维斯在西弗吉尼亚州格拉夫顿为母亲举办了纪念仪式。这个仪式令她感动不已，因此，她至此开始举行大规模的活动，以促进母亲节成为正式节假日。1910年，西弗吉尼亚州成为确立母亲节的第一州。一年后，几乎每个州都正式确立了这个节日。1914年，伍德罗·威尔逊总统正式宣布，5月的第二个周日为法定节假日——母亲节。

every state officially marked the day. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed Mother’s Day as a national holiday to be held on the second Sunday of May.

But Jarvis’ accomplishment soon turned bitter for her. Enraged by the commercialization of the holiday, she filed a lawsuit to stop a 1923 Mother’s Day festival and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a war mothers’ convention where women sold white carnations—Jarvis’ symbol for mothers—to raise money.“This is not what I intended,” Jarvis said, “I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit!”

When she died in 1948, at age 84, Jarvis had become a woman of great ironies. Never a mother herself, her maternal fortune dissipated by her efforts to stop the commercialization of the holiday she had founded, Jarvis told a reporter shortly before her death that she was sorry she had ever started Mother’s Day. She spoke these words in a nursing home where every Mother’s Day her room had been filled with cards from all over the world.

Today, because and despite Jarvis’ efforts, many celebrations of Mother’s Days are held throughout the world. Although they do not all fall at the same time, such countries as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Belgium also celebrate Mother’s Day on the same day as the United States.

Dear Mother, thank you for bringing me to this world to come up. There’d be no me without you, nor seasons of happiness and sadness.

但是，贾维斯的成就很快就成为她的困扰。她对母亲节的商业化万分气愤，为此，她不仅为取缔1923年的母亲节庆典提起诉讼，还有一次蓄意扰乱战时的母亲大会，因为那些妇女为了集资，而在大会上售卖她心目中象征母亲的白色康乃馨。因为这些事件，她最后竟落得锒铛入狱的下场。“这并不是我的本意，”贾维斯说，“我心中的母亲节是感谢日，而不是发财日！”

贾维斯于1948年去世，享年84岁。她的一生颇具讽刺意味。她从没做过母亲，却建立了母亲节，又千辛万苦地抵制母亲节的商业化。看来，她的“未为人之母”是命中注定的。贾维斯在逝世前不久，曾对记者说，她很后悔当初建立了母亲节，说这番话的时候，她正在私人疗养院的房间里。尽管如此，每年母亲节的时候，她的房间仍会堆满来自全世界的卡片。

今天，不论母亲节是否与贾维斯的努力有关，但现在全世界都在庆祝母亲节。尽管不同国家的母亲节的日期有所不同，但丹麦、芬兰、意大利、土耳其、澳大利亚、比利时的母亲节，都和美国是同一天。

亲爱的母亲，谢谢你给了我生命。若没有你，就没有我，也没有我四季的悲欢。