May day and other holidays - Russian Ukrainian Belarus Travel Music Woman Dating News

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May day and other holidays
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Posted by: heybuddy

Can anyone tell me more about this holiday? Is it still celebrated? I tought this holiday is a big military parade of tanks and soidiers. By the way it may be useful if someone could tell me more about Russian holidays it would help. Also are North American holidays a big deal in Russia (Mothers day is coming soon)

Posted by: Jim_FL

May 1st is still celebrated, Liliya told me everything will be closed May 1,2,3 this year.

Mother's day is strictly an American holiday but I thought it would be kinda cool to introduce her family to this holiday. Last week I sent out a card to her, her Mom and her Grandmother. I explained the holiday to her last year. This year I wrote a short explanation (in Russian) to her Mom and Grandmother, showing the similarities and differences with Intl Women's Day.

Posted by: Khashyar

Hello Jim and Heybuddy...

Isn't May Day a pre-Christian festival?? And doesn't it have to do something with a celebration of Spring??

I think that throughout different parts of Europe, May Day is a pre-Christian festival or celebration.

If anyone else knows about this, then please post more information about it...

Khashyar

Posted by: Jutman

Mothers as a American holiday. Sorry, its a western culture. But also at several russian netplaces, the motherday is mentioned.

Posted by: Jim_FL

The Story of Mother's Day
The earliest tributes to Mother's Day date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated a Mother's Day of sorts during a festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England the holiday was expanded to include all mothers. It was then called Mothering Sunday.

In the United States it started with one woman named Anna Jarvis. Jarvis was an Appalachian homemaker and she organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions of her community. She thought the day would be best advocated by mothers and called the day "Mother's Work Day".

When Anna Jarvis died in 1905 her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Anna remembered that her mother said there were many days dedicated to men but not for mothers.

In 1907 Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year Mother's Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.
Ms. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessman, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day. It was successful as by 1911 Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.

While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother's Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which also celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May.