It's that time of year again...the day we celebrate and honour all our mothers, and the day we kick off the Great Mother's/Mothers'/Mothers Day Apostrophe Debate.This time last year, the blogosphere was abuzz with opinions about where the apostrophe should fall.
Google "apostrophe in mothers day" and you'll find over 28,000 results. It seems a lot of us actually do care about this issue!
Last year, M of Easternmax had to get to the bottom of the dilemma. She wrote:
A version of Mother's Day is celebrated in many countries around the world on many different days of the year. A quick Google or Wikipedia search will tell you this. The most popular days are Mothering Sunday in the UK which is on the third Sunday of Lent and Mother's Day in many other countries on the second Sunday in May.
If your country celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May it is likely that you follow the US tradition inspired by the quest of Anna Jarvis, who wanted a 'holy' recognition of individual mothers and Julia Ward Howe, whose experiences of the American Civil War led her to call for the recognition of the role of mothers. Formal recognition of a Mother's Day as designated by Jarvis was was finally enshrined by the 1914 proclamation by then US President Woodrow Wilson.
The location of the apostrophe is part of the common debate which asks:
-Is it a day recognising your mother eg. Mother's Day
-Is it a day recognising all mothers eg. Mothers' Day, or
-Is it a day of/for mothers eg. Mothers Day
There are no winners here because all answers can be correct depending on your point of view.
My view is: don't argue, choose whichever one you are comfortable with.
However, if you are a stickler for the fine print you will notice that the Proclamation issued by Woodrow Wilson in 1914 was for a Mother's Day. This use of the apostrophe was apparently stipulated by Anna Jarvis because it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honour their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world. source: here
Anna Jarvis, in fact, trademarked the terms "Mother's Day" and "second Sunday in May" in 1912.
So, if your country follows the US designation then it is correct when referring to the day in its official capacity to write Mother's Day (unless an alternative proclamation has been made in your country).
You just NEEDED to know that, didn't you...
All of which seems to lead to the fact, you can call it what you like.
Before our time, in the Victorian era in Britain, Mothering Sunday was a day on which children who worked in domestic service could return to their own homes to visit their mothers and attend their home church. Even earlier, it was an annual day for all parishioners to return to their "mother" church, (i.e. the one in their home parish) if they had moved away from it.
Early last century, when Anna Jarvis in the United States began her campaign of lobbying prominent businessmen and politicians to create a special day to honour mothers it was with the intention of creating a celebration of the importance of women and their work inside the home, as mothers. She intended that children would visit their mothers and attend church with them, or perhaps write letters if too far away to visit.
Almost immediately, she became quite concerned about the commercialization of Mother's Day as she had wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit. She opposed the use of greeting cards: "a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write." (source)
One wonders what Anna Jarvis would think of the 'celebration' that Mothers' Day has become now? Retail catalogues try to convince us that every mum
Restaurants and cafes are packed as families take their mothers out for indulgent lunches.
The retail, food and entertainment sectors see it as a huge marketing opportunity and, obviously, a successful one.
Perhaps, along with the rogue apostrophe, Mothers Day has lost its true place?
How do you celebrate Mothers Day/Mother's Day/Mothers' Day/Mothering Sunday?
4 comments:
I shall be celebrating it by feeling guilty my gift didn't get across the ocean to my mother in time.
I shall celebrate it by reminding my kids it is Mother's Day in Asutralia and I am an Australian therefore they should bow down before me and honour me ;-)
But mostly I shall be ringing my mother.
I'll be ringing my mother. I haven't sent her anything as I've been sick all week plus I am going home next weekend in a stroke of bad timing, so I will probably pop into David Jones and buy a little something for her. It won't be the gift that matters so much as the fact that it comes from DJs -- Mum's favourite store and one we are sadly lacking in our hometown.
(I do think that from a grammatical point of view, the Day of or for Mothers should still have an apostrophe, but modern English is so clumsy with the genitive that I'm inclined to let it go.)
I just posted about my mother's day...and while it wasn't what I envisaged, it was still a good day spent in the company of my adorable son :) Who could ask for more? I don't need lunch, or prsents, (although I did get a gift), sometimes I think I just need to reinforce the relationship - especially as he enters these difficult teen years.
Good post! - as usual. And yes, let us campaign in favour of apostrophes.
I never made a great fuss about it when my children were little, and asked for things like lemon scented soap, as I hate the blatant commercialisation of the day. It is lovely to be remembered, though.
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