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BLOG: Happy Mother's Day, again
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Americans will celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 14th. People across the nation will celebrate the mothers in their lives: their own mothers, grandmothers, mothers-in-law, and certainly their wives. In my case, all my elder mothers have passed away except for my mother-in-law. So, I have two women in my life to celebrate Mother’s Day, once a year — or in fact, twice a year!
For Arab American mothers this will be their second Mother’s Day of the year, they get two every year.
Most social calendar celebration days, Mother’s Day included, are celebrated on different days around the world. In the majority of the 20-plus Arab countries, Mother’s Day falls on March 21st, the “Vernal Equinox,” except in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, where Mother’s Day falls on the last Sunday of May.
It is interesting to share that as an Arab American, March 21st in the Arab world is very special. I gave a medical grand round at Michigan State University’s teaching hospital last March 21st. Faculty members are required to present 1 to 2 grand rounds per year. I usually choose the months of November and March for my annual grant rounds. I usually start my PowerPoint presentation with some sports related news but because Michigan State University has not done well in their sports this year, I skipped the sporting theme.
Instead, as a prelude to that particular March 21st presentation, I talked about the special celebrations falling on March 21st from around the world. I came across numerous holidays such as Teacher’s Day, Down Syndrome Day, National Tree Day, International Poetry Day, etc. The funniest holiday was certainly, “The Credit Card Reduction Day.”
In my household, our children already celebrated Mother’s Day on March 21st, as fully as they would celebrate the day back home in Jordan. They would repeat the celebration on May 14th, as full as any other American family would celebrate the occasion. Except that for this year, the kids will do the celebration remotely, since their mother will be traveling at the time.
In some ways, this post could be part 2 of the post, “The mystery of the motherhood instinct.” The post touched on a recent study from Spain which confirmed brain changes caused by pregnancy, never studied prior. The researchers uncovered the mystery of the unique instinct of motherhood.
However, it is clear that the reverse bonding also exists in human beings, that is the bonding of people to their mothers. Unlike the Spanish study which alluded to the mother's bonding to her children, there have been no studies, to my knowledge, that addressed this reverse phenomenon. Why are people so bonded to their mothers?
Clearly, across all nations and cultures, it seems that intricate societal factors as well as religious teaching have created a mysterious sense of obligation, gratitude and compassion towards one’s mother.
The mere pondering about the pains of pregnancy and labor that women endure automatically influence every man or woman to feel grateful to his or her mothers, for life. Certainly, the sacrifices that mothers around the world put forth towards their children serve as a reminder to keep that gratitude pouring out.
So, to the mother of my children, I will say on May 14th, Happy Mother’s Day, again!