SLICE
To the
GREATEST
Women Lives
in our
Mark 11 May 2014 on the calendar because that is the day to celebrate the life and love of the
greatest woman in our life – our mothers! To commemorate this occasion, we have put together a
few interesting facts and figures, tales of sacrifice and love, and more, in this month’s Slice.
Remember to shower your mothers with love and affection, not just on Mother’s Day, but every day
of the year!
MOTHER’S DAY
DINNERTIME
CONVERSATIONS!
Family dinners are the perfect way
to bond with each other. So, put away
those smartphones and use these
Mother’s Day-related factoids to start
conversations the next time everyone
is at the dining table!
What are your
thoughts
on Hallmark
holidays?
• The modern-day Mother’s Day
celebration first began in 1908
when Anna Jarvis held a memorial
for her mother in West Virginia.
However, as Mother’s Day became
more and more commercialised,
Jarvis grew infuriated and actually
spent the rest of her life as well as
her remaining inheritance to fight
what she considered “an abuse of
the celebration”. Towards the end
of her life, Jarvis even wished that
she had “never started the day
because it had spiralled out
of control”.
6
Family & Life • Apr 2014
Did you
know many
countries
in the past
politicised
Mother’s
Day?
• Back in the 1920s, Germany was facing a deepening
crisis – birth rates were plunging to the point that
Germany had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe,
and the trend looked set to continue. The issue was
attributed to women’s increased participation in the
workforce, so in an effort to encourage women to
bear more children, the Mother’s Day holiday was
introduced. The more progressive groups, however,
resisted the holiday because they saw it as a way to
eliminate the rights of the working woman.
• Following Germany’s lead, the conservative Mexican
government, led by Álvaro Obregón, imported the
American Mother’s Day holiday in 1922 as a way to
promote a more conservative role for mothers in
families. The socialists, however, criticised the holiday
for promoting an “unrealistic image of a woman who
was not good for much more than breeding”.
• Mother’s Day was first brought to Egypt by renowned
spitfire journalist Mustafa Amin in 1943. Although the
day was not immediately accepted, the concept soon
spread and Egypt finally celebrated the holiday in 1956.
There were attempts by the government to change the
name of the holiday from Mother’s Day to Family Day
to prevent the Egyptian people from remembering the
founder; Amin was regularly arrested and imprisoned
for his published critical views of Nasser’s regime. The
attempts, however, were unsuccessful.