This year, people all over the world will recognize their mothers and significant women in their lives by celebrating Mother's Day. While Mother's Day is often thought of as a day for purchasing greeting cards, carnations, and boxes of chocolate, that was the opposite intention of its creator.
Mother's Day in the United States has been a holiday for about 100 years, but holidays celebrating mothers have been around for much longer, and are held in nearly every country in the world.
In America, the modern version of Mother's Day was first celebrated by Anna Jarvis in 1908. Following the death of her mother, Jarvis felt that Americans should spend more time honoring their mothers, particularly because society often overlooks the time and effort mothers put into raising children.
For many years, she campaigned for support to make Mother's Day an official holiday. In 1914, she succeeded and President Woodrow Wilson declared that the second Sunday in May would be a national holiday celebrating mothers.
The most common way to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States is to purchase flowers, often carnations, and greeting cards. A red carnation is often given to a mother who is still alive and a white carnation is often left as a memorial to a mother who is deceased.
Children will hand-make cards in school to give to their mothers. Many people go to church services with their mothers on Mother's Day, as well. Often, people will then go out to eat at a restaurant.
In Kinmen, people can do much the same thing to celebrate Mother's Day. You can buy flowers for your mother at the local flower shop, or perhaps buy a nice box of chocolate. Why not get creative and design your own card?
And kids, why not show how hard you are working on your English by writing to your mother in English? Just simply write, "Happy Mother's Day!" and on the inside you can write all of the reasons why you love your mother. To all the wonderful mothers in Kinmen, Happy Mother's Day!