Honoring Mothers, Peace, Gorillas And So Much More
This Mother’s Day, the day we honor those who make all of humanity possible, falls on the same day, 77 years ago when the Nazi surrender went into effect at 11:01 p.m., ending a European conflict that took the lives of millions of mothers’ children.
Traditionally Russia has celebrated International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day on March 8 and the following day, the nation commemorates Victory Day, the day when the Nazis surrendered, ending World War II. Tomorrow, President Vladimir Putin is expected to use the national holiday not to urge for peace but to announce further escalation of the devastating, bloody invasion of Ukraine to justify Russia’s goal of “de-Nazifying” Ukraine and eliminating alleged fascists under the Ukrainian leadership. Ukraine has consistently insisted that there are Nazis in the government.
Mother’s Day in some iteration has been celebrated around the world for millennia, such as the Greek cult to Cybele, the mother deity Rhea, the Roman festival of Hilaria, or the other Christian ecclesiastical Mothering Sunday celebration.
The U.S., however, didn’t get around to honoring its mothers until President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed May 8, 1914, as Mother’s Day, capping a six-year drive led by Anna Maria Jarvis. She wanted to honor her mother, Ann Maria (née Reeves) Jarvis, who organized a committee in 1868 to establish a “Mother’s Friendship Day,” “to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War.” In 1872, Ann Maria Jarvis called for women to join in support of disarmament and asked for June 2, to be established as a “Mother’s Day for Peace” to organize pacifist mothers against war. Ann Marie Jarvis never saw her dream realized but her daughter did.
Jarvis simply wanted people to wear white carnations in honor of mothers. But as the years passed, Jarvis grew disenchanted with the growing commercialization of the day, now commonly referred to derisively as “Hallmark Card Day” when more cards, flowers and candy are sold than for any other holiday. Jarvis disavowed the day and even tried to have the Mother’s Day designation rescinded.
“A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother — and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment,” she said.
Jarvis died at age 84 in a sanitarium on Nov. 24, 1948, and her medical bills were paid by people in the floral and greeting card industries.
In Russia, “Victory Day,” May 9, was for decades a solemn day of sorrowful remembrance for the millions of Soviet citizens killed during the Second World War. In recent years, however, the day has lost its significance as a day to renounce war as Putin has staged huge military parades to make his regime appear stronger and a natural continuation of the former Soviet super power.
The end of World War II is known by various names, Liberation Day, Victory Day, Victory Over Fascism Day or simply, VE-Day. In France and Slovakia, it is a national holiday. In Germany, it is a day of remembrance.
The Nazi surrender went into effect at 11:01 pm, May 8, 1945, . when Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, chief of the operations staff of the German Armed Forces High Command, signed a surrender agreement with Allied forces on the night of May 6/7, 1945, in Reims, France.
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, seeking to cement his control on the eastern front, secured the signature of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, chief commander of the German Armed Forces High Command, on an act of surrender at Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst just after midnight, May 9. That is why Russia has traditionally commemorated the end of hostilities on May 9. In the Netherlands, the end of German occupation is known as “Bevrijdingsdag” and celebrated on May 5.
The former German President, Richard von Weizsäcker, said on May 8, 1985, the 40th anniversary of the end of the war, that it was Germany’s “Day of Liberation” from the inhumane and tyrannical system of National Socialism. Japan, however, has never apologized for its acts in World War II and its pre-war aggression into neighboring countries.
World War One, also known as the Great War, ended when world leaders at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 signed an armistice ending four years of bloody battles. Americans honor their war heroes, both living and dead, each year on Nov. 11, originally known as Armistice Day and renamed in Veterans Day 1954 to remember those who fought in all wars.
Most of the war dead are buried at Arlington National Cemetery and other national cemeteries near the battle zones. Memorial Day or Decoration Day originated after the Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who perished. The Confederates set up a different day at first but then merged it into the national holiday. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service.
We are a nation of holidays, some serious, some more whimsical, some sanctioned as national holidays like Mother’s Day and others just celebrated for the sake of celebrating.
Among the most controversial is Confederate Memorial Day, known also as Confederate Heroes Day in Texas and Florida, and Confederate Decoration Day in Tennessee. The day is dedicated to remember the estimated 258,000 Confederate soldiers who died fighting against the Union in the Civil War. It is an official state holiday in Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina; and is commemorated in Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee.
In Texas, Robert E. Lee’s birthday on Jan. 19 was named a state holiday in 1931. “Lee Day” was renamed “Confederate Heroes Day” “in honor of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and other Confederate heroes.”
In contrast, the nation’s newest national holiday is Juneteenth, observed on June 19 to commemorates the end of slavery in Texas, which wasn’t until two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
There are serious commemorations, like World Peace Day on Sept. 21 and Nanomonestotse, an autumn celebration of peace, observed within some Native American families. Or World Humanist Day, celebrated around the world on the June solstice, which usually falls on June 21, to spread awareness of humanism as a philosophical life stance and means to effect change in the world.
The “International Day of Peace,” also officially known as “World Peace Day,” is a United Nations-sanctioned holiday observed annually on Sept. 21. It is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, such as might be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone for humanitarian aid access.
And then some more obscure, including:
“World Hello Day” is observed on Nov. 21, to express that conflicts should be resolved through communication rather than the use of force. Participants agree to greet 10 people or more on that day as an expression of the importance of personal communication in preserving peace. The event began in 1973 as a response to the Yom Kippur War.
“420,” April 20, celebrates cannabis culture.
“Black Friday” or “Buy Nothing Day” is the day after Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.
“Galactic Tick Day” celebrates the movement of the Solar System around the Milky Way galaxy. The day is observed every 633.7 days, or 1.7361 years, stamping one “galactic tick,” which marks 1/100th of an arcsecond of the orbit of the solar system around the Milky Way.
“International Talk Like a Pirate Day” celebrated every Sept. 19, when people are urged to grab some grog, gather up some mates and talk like a pirate.
“Mole Day,” Oct. 23, celebrated from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., to commemorate Avogadro’s Number (6.02 x 1⁰²³), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Mole Day was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry.
“Monkey Day” every Dec. 14 was created in 2000 by artists Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin to celebrate monkeys and “all things simian”, including other non-human primates such as apes, tarsiers and lemurs.
“National Gorilla Suit Day” comes on Jan. 31 when people wear gorilla suits in honor of MAD magazine artist Don Martin who wrote a 56-page comic mocking Gorilla Suits.
“National Hugging Day,” created in 1986 by Kevin Zaborney, a “Creative Social Entrepreneur” from Michigan, comes on Jan. 21 when people are encouraged to give everyone a hug, family, friends but to ask first if it’s OK to hug.
“No Pants Day” is on the first Friday of May when people walk around in underwear just because they can.
“Ashoriya” is a day the Mandaeans remember the drowned people of Noah’s flood. Mandaeans are an ethnoreligious group, native to the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia who are followers of Mandaeism. There are estimated to be 60,000–100,000 Mandaeans worldwide.
“Lughnasadh,” Aug. 11, is a trial marriage ceremony of old Celtic origin, marking the beginning of the harvest season in honor of Lugh, a three-faced god. On this day, couples join hands through a hole in a wooden door and exchange vows and gifts and then proclaim their marriage for one year and one day. At the next Lughnasadh, the marriage can be cancelled without consequences.
St. Crispin’s Day on Oct. 25, the feast day of the Christian saints Crispin and Crispinian, is a time when effigies of people generally disliked are hung on signposts until Nov. 5, to just let off steam. Then the dummy is taken down and burned. I have someone in mind to hang in effigy and burn.
Happy Mother’s Day and everything in between.