It’s a beautiful Spring morning in Vancouver, an ideal day for celebrating the occasion. Happy Mother’s Day to Una, and to all the other mums reading this page  …

Happy Mother’s Day, Una

It’s a great day to celebrate or remember mothers, and apparently this occasion is becoming increasingly lucrative for the economy. Estimates are that, in the US alone, $19.9 billion (yes, with a “b”) will be spent to mark Mother’s Day this year. The top five choices for such expenditures?  Greeting cards, restaurants, jewellery, flowers and then spa treatments.

Whether you mark Mother’s Day – or “Mothering Sunday”, as I understand UK readers call this day – by visiting or remembering your mother, flowers are always a hit. One of my favourite florists was a busy spot yesterday, but the simplicity of a handful of home grown flowers, or a clutch of lilacs, also speaks volumes and preempts consumerism.

Long before this day became a commercial enterprise, the Egyptians and Romans celebrated Isis. In the Neolithic era, roughly six thousand years ago, Phrygians’ celebration of the “Mother Goddess” had extended from Anatolia/Turkey through Asia Minor to areas of Greece. In that country, this Mother Goddess was also called Cybele or Matar (“mother”), where she joined another mother goddess, Rhea, who was recognised as the Greek mother of the gods. Romans also recognised Cybele as their own mother goddess and,ultimately, both Greeks and Romans referred to her as Magna Mater (the “Great Mother”).

However and by whatever name you celebrate Mother’s Day, La Fete de Meres, Mothering Sunday, Materitse,  haha no hi  or Día de la madre … here’s to you and yours.