BY: GITIJNAA ARCHITA PATI, CLASS: IX – E

Paying reverence to Mother is part of every culture—both modern and ancient. Just name a cult and you will find an exemplary image of the Mother in it: Parvati for Hindus, Cybele for the Greeks, Mother Mary for the Christians, Tellus for ancient Roman religion, Anu/Danu for Irish, Gaia for the Native American, Panchamama for South America, Bon Bibi of Sundarbans to name a few. This archetypal mother image held the collective consciousness of the people and little narratives of almost all ancient communities revolved around them. The mother goddess was and still is the personification of nature, motherhood, fertility creation and destruction. When equated with the Earth or the natural world, she is referred to as Mother Earth.

Time has changed and the mother archetypal has shifted from the collective consciousness to individual consciousness. But the mother figure remains central to an individual’s life. And in small nuclear families, the family revolves around the mother figure. The modern world recognizes her contribution by celebrating a special day of the year—Mother’s Day.

The history of Mother Day’s celebration dates back to 1908, when Anna Jarvis celebrated    a memorial for her mother in St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Graffton, West Virginia, USA. And the International Mother’s Day Shrine has been established there. Efforts of Anna led to declaration of Mother’s Day in the United States on March 8, a day to honour all mothers, to honor someone who contributes the most to any individual’s life. And the celebration has spread world over though it is not celebrated the same day in every country.

So Mother’s Day is a day to pay reverence to one’s mother and mother figure. I hold this day as a very special one. But it has so happened that every year I have been reminded of this day a day or two before by my cousins. So I am never able to make any elaborate plans. And I always curse myself for that. But I am not totally to blame as the dates keep changing every year. We in India usually follow the American date.

Here I would like to share the best gift I gave to my mother on a Mother’s Day.  I can say that with confidence because my mother has preserved that till date. I was probably in class three then. I secretly collected pictures of my mother from three different stages of her life and made a card on which I wrote that “Mother you are the most beautiful woman in this world especially when you wear a green dress.” I remember my mother’s astonishment. I thought she would say “The card is so shabby?” But she said “How did  you know that green is my favourite colour?” And latter in the day she laminated that card so that it doesn’t get torn or worn out. I felt so happy then and still feel so when I see that card in the drawer of her study table.