101 Years Celebrating Mother's Day

The honouring of mothers may date back to ancient times when Greeks worshiped Cybele (a great mother of Greek gods), but the commercialised Mother's Day we now celebrate only began 101 years ago.

The first Mother's Day was celebrated in 1907, West Virginia, where Anna Jarvis commemorated her mother's second death anniversary. The ceremony was held in West Virginia, with 407 children and their mothers.

Anna Jarvis' mother, Ann Jarvis, had been an active participant in Mother's Day campaigns for peace, worker's safety, and health since the end of the American Civil War. Anna decided to carry on her mother's passion and embarked on various campaigns to make Mother's Day an official holiday. Anna eventually succeeded, and on May 14, 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

Thus the day to treat your mom with the extra special love she deserves on a daily basis.

How To Celebrate Mother's Day, Even If You're Broke

• Secretly turn off your mom's alarm clock and let her sleep in for the Sunday while you and your siblings take over the house chores she usually gets up early to do.
• Follow that up by waking her gently and presenting her with a breakfast in bed fit for a queen.
• Contribute to the card by unveiling your poetic alter ego and pen her a lighthearted poem, listing out silly moments and ending it off with a touching line.
• Give her an hour-long massage.
• Throw in a tune to that poem with a few simple chords on the guitar, and perform an original song just for her. Whether you sing it, rap it, or rock it, be sure to make the song memorable for her.
• Create a personalised photo album, littered with cute stickers and photos depicting funny, happy, and sweet moments together with your mom.
• Dig up a special photograph of you and your mom, enlarge it, and frame it up nicely.
• Take her out to Esplanade's Mother's Day Special, a Chinese concert by popular artists like Li Chuan and Alex Su, or an English concert, featuring Robert Fernando, Wendy Chin, and Lily Nuris. (We're proud to include both concerts in this list because admission is free.)
• If you're really noble, create a booklet of vouchers which enable your mom to take time off with your help. Label your vouchers with services like "Half-an-hour shoulder massage", "Car Wash", "Do the dishes", or "Do the laundry", and keep your mom happy throughout the year.

A Mother's Love Lasts Forever

Author: Mardie Caldwell

For most mothers, the love they feel for their children is a strong and powerful bond that will continue throughout their lives. The love a mother feels for her child is the same whether the child was grown in their own body or in their heart, as when a mother adopts a child.

My children are dear to me and I find it hard to see them in pain. I feel like a
mother hen watching over her baby chicks. Children are tough in some areas, but always need to know they are loved, wanted and are priceless to us, at any age. Even when our children don't need us any longer to tie their shoestrings or to wipe their noses, they still need to know that we care. Often a child will not feel the impact of their mother's love until they become a parent themselves or their mother is no longer living. Then, the power of a lifetime of love their mother provided sets in.

To love and accept our children, even when they are driving us nuts and their behavior is horrid is most challenging. But the mix of unconditional love and loving limits are the most important duties and obligations a mother can have. Hugs and kisses are a necessity. Love can be expressed in many other ways too, including the discipline and responsibility we give to our children. Eye contact and a simple touch on the shoulder or a love pat on the back mean so much and cost so little. Try today to think of ways you can show your children how much you love and value them.

From: http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/a-mothers-love-lasts-forever-189766.html

Mothers Day Gifts for Grandmothers

Author: Giftlet Website

When we celebrate Mothers Day, everyone buys gifts and honors their Mothers. Everyone buys flowers and jewelry for their Mothers, takes them our to brunch and makes the day special for them.

But how about celebrating Mothers Day your Grandmother as well? Grandmothers should also be honored during the Mothers Day celebrations. Your Grandmother is your Mothers or your Fathers mother, which makes her a mother, which means that she should also be honored during Mothers Day.

Unfortunately, not everyone buys gifts for their Grandmothers for Mothers Day. And, it is much harder to find Grandmothers-specific gifts that you can give to your Grandmother for Mothers Day.

But, we are going to make it easy for you to find gifts for your Grandmother for Mothers Day. We have done online research and found lots of fabulous gifts for your Grandmother for Mothers Day. Since when a gift is personalized after you buy it, you can get many different gifts personalized specifically for your grandmother. Personalization makes gifts much more special, and your Grandmother will really love them!

From: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/mothers-day-gifts-for-grandmothers-116061.html

Did You Know?

• Most countries celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May, following a 1914 declaraton by US President Woodrow Wilson.
• Thailand’s Mother’s Day falls on August 12, the birthday of Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara
• Other countries’ Mother’s Day: Sweden, last Sunday in May; Lebanon: first day of Spring; Norway, second Sunday in February; Austria, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Taiwan, Hungary, Portugal, South Africa, and Spain: first Sunday in May.
• A mother giraffe often gives birth while standing, so the new born's first experience outside the womb is a 1.8-meter (6-foot) drop.
• A female oyster over her lifetime may produce over 100 million young
• Just like people, mother chimpanzees often develop lifelong relationships with their offspring.
• Kittens are born both blind and deaf, but the vibration of their mother's purring is a physical signal that the kittens can feel - it acts like a homing device, signaling them to nurse.
• Tuesday is the most popular day of the week in which to have a baby, with an average of more than 12,000 births taking place on Tuesdays during 2001.
• In the vast majority of the world's languages, the word for "mother" begins with the letter M.

Mother's Day Movies

	All About Eve The ambitious Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) gets close to the great and temperamental stage artist Margo Channing (Bette Davis) and her friends Karen Richards (Celeste Holm) and her husband, the play-writer Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe); her boyfriend and director Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill); and the producer Max Fabian (Gregory Ratoff). Everybody, except the cynical critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders), believe that Eve is only a naive, humble and simple obsessed fan of Margo and they try to help her. However, Eve is indeed a cynical and manipulative snake that uses the lives of Margo and her friends to reach her objectives in the theater business. Written by Claudio Carvalho
	All About My Mother A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, and by happenstance, becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover, and she becomes Rosa's caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca, "All About Eve," and "Streetcar Named Desire," the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship. Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}
	Anywhere But Here Fed up with her small-town Bay City existence, Adele August leaves her family and second husband and heads for Beverley Hills with her daughter. The teenager resents the move and her mother's always flamboyant behaviour and in turns plans to get away to university on the east coast. Mum's plans are different - she wants a movie star for a daughter. Written by Jeremy Perkins
	Auntie Mame Mame is an unconventional individualist socialite from the roaring 20's. When her brother dies, she is forced to raise her nephew Patrick. However, Patrick's father has designated an executor to his will to protect the boy from absorbing too much of Mame's rather unconventional perspective. Patrick and Mame become devoted to each other in spite of this restriction, and together journey through Patrick's childhood and the great depression, amidst some rather zaney adventures. Written by Ross Thompson
	Chocolat When a single mother and her six-year-old daughter move to rural France and open a chocolate shop - with Sunday hours - across the street from the local church, they are met with some skepticism. But as soon as they coax the townspeople into enjoying their delicious products, they are warmly welcomed.
	Comedy of Innocence  Today, Camille turns nine. He had sworn that on his 9th birthday he would show his parents the videos he was shooting on the side-the tail of a cat scampering away, a window, and a veiled woman's face - an intriguing picture... Later that day, Camille's mother, Ariane, meets up with her son in the park. The boys appears perturbed. He is leaning against a tree, eyes cast down. He says that now he wants to return to his "real home" and his "real mother." Written by GMeleJr
	Imitation of Life Aspiring actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) meets Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though Annie's little girl Sarah Jane (Karen Dicker and, later, Susan Kohner), is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter (Terry Burnham and then Sandra Dee) in a single-minded quest for stardom. Legendary movie director Douglas Sirk's last American film.
	Joy Luck Club, The Through a series of flashbacks, four young chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China, explore their past. This search will help them understand their difficult mother/daughter relationship. Written by Robert Pare
	Mommie Dearest Based on the book about Joan Crawford, one of the great Hollywood actresses of our time, written by her adopted daughter Christina Crawford. Joan decides to adopt children of her own to fill a void in her life. Yet, her problems with alcohol, men, and the pressures of show business get in the way of her personal life, turning her into a mentally abusive wreck seen through the eyes of Christina and her brother Christopher, who unwillingly bore the burden of life that was unseen behind the closed doors of "The Most Beautiful House in Brentwood." Written by Geoffrey A. Middleton
	Pyscho Phoenix officeworker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother. Written by Col Needham
	Riding in Cars with Boys Seriocomic story based on the memoir by Beverly Donofrio, the movie follows a young woman who finds her life radically altered by an event from her teen years.
	Stella Dallas Working-class Stella Martin marries high-end Stephen Dallas and soon they have a daughter named Laurel. But Stephen's incessant demands of Stella to become what she isn't leads to their eventual separation. Stephen later marries Helen Morrison (his prior fiancée), and Laurel becomes the focus of Stella's life and love. Nothing is too good for Laurel as far as Stella is concerned. Determined to give her all the advantages, she takes Laurel on a trip to an expensive resort where Laurel makes friends with rich kids. After an embarrassing incident, Stella realizes that her daughter would go farther in life without Stella as her mother. Her subsequent sacrifice is shattering.
	Terms Of Endearment Aurora and Emma are mother and daughter who march to different drummers. Beginning with Emma's marriage, Aurora shows how difficult and loving she can be. The movie covers several years of their lives as each finds different reasons to go on living and find joy. Aurora's interludes with Garrett Breedlove, retired astronaut and next door neighbor are quite striking. In the end, different people show their love in very different ways. Written by John Vogel
All synopses from www.imdb.com