Festa Della Mamma

Did you know that on La Festa Della Mamma (Mother’s Day, which is celebrated on the same day in Italy and the US) Italian phone companies record their highest volumes of the year?  Or that Mother’s Day falls third on the list of holidays for spending, right behind Christmas and Valentine’s Day?  Our Mom is one of the most important women in our lives, so we understand what all the fuss is about!

And yet with all of this hype, Mother’s Day is actually a relatively new holiday.  It wasn’t officially adopted in the US until 1914 and it wasn’t officially adopted in Italy until 1958.  We’re glad people finally got their acts together to celebrate Mom!!! 

Some trace the idea of Mother’s Day back to ancient Rome where the goddess Juno was celebrated yearly as the Goddess of Fertility.  She also had a month named after her (June) and to this day, many Italians believe that getting married in the month of June is good luck for a healthy marriage and for fertility.

Others trace the idea of Mother’s Day back to the Christian “Mothering Sunday” tradition whereby people would go and visit their “Mother” church— meaning the church where they were baptized—and decorate it with flowers and gifts.

The new iteration of Mother’s Day is special because of the apostrophe.  “Mother’s” is possessive.  All of a sudden we, as a society, were encouraged to celebrate our own Mother, not the Mother of mankind or the Church (although attending mass on Mother’s Day is still a very important tradition in Italy).  On this day, all around the world, children, fathers and husbands all get the opportunity to take care of the mothers in their lives.  They get the chance to tell the women in their lives who nurture and take care of the family “Thank you!”

However you celebrate this year, be sure to take a moment to call the special women in your life to remind them how important they are!!

From our family to yours,

Buona Festa Della Mamma!