France's Fete des Mères is a holiday that was inaugurated by Napoleon in 1806. Letizia Bonaparte was a harsh mother who actually outlived her famous son by 15 years. She strongly disliked him becoming emperor and refused to attend his coronation!
The tradition of honoring mothers dates back to Ancient Greece and Rome. Mother Goddesses were worshipped in both of these cultures during the spring.
The Roman goddess Magna Mater or Cybele was often artistically depicted in a chariot drawn by lions. There was a belief that lions couldn’t mate or produce offspring. Cybele turned people who didn’t properly pay her tribute into these roaring beasts as a punishment Cybele embodies the fertile earth. She is the goddess of caverns, mountains, walls, fortresses, flowers, and wild animals.
Cybele’s most ecstatic followers were called the Galli. They castrated themselves in her honor during the Spring festival. I think I’ll stick to giving my Mom a vintage postcard as a gift! This is a better present idea!
My favorite Napoleon quote is: Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
5 cool cats commented:
Gosh his mother sounds horrible! He must have been constantly seeking her approval and never seemingly got it.
I'm very honoured you should put Lynn's List in your sidebar. Thanks so much! Great songs.
Very interesting about Napoleon starting the Mother's Day holiday in France, especially since he had a beastly-sounding mother! I like your idea of sending Mom a vintage postcard for Mother's Day. I bet you have many perfect ones to choose from!
Great 1968 song list Lynn!
Poor Napoleon. Who created Mother's Day in America I wonder?
A-Ling
Lynn and katie - You hit the nail on the head!
Napoleon’s mother lost her husband at a very young age and was left with 8 children and barely enough money to survive. She never trusted circumstances. She always expected the worst. Even at the height of Napoleon’s power she was pinching pennies and trying to economize. She disliked Josephine because of her extravagance. Letizia was a very religious woman. Napoleon’s excommunication haunted her. She went to the Pope on numerous occasions begging for reconsideration. She also never learned to speak French. The island of Corsica was taken over by the French in 1769 and she always thought of them as oppressors even when her son was the one running the country!
Good question anonymous - I stole this from Wiki - Sorry it's a bit long:)
The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors. In parts of the United States it is customary to plant tomatoes outdoors after Mother's Day (and not before).
When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May 1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Originally the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, this building is now the International Mother's Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark). From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.
Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become. Mother's Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.
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