口语Festival素材:Mother's Day（母亲节）

　　Mothers Daythe 2nd Sunday in May

　　Mothers Day is a time of commemoration and celebration for Mom. It is a time of breakfast in bed, family gatherings, and crayon scribbled I Love Yous.

　　The earliest Mothers Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 1600s, England celebrated a day called Mothering Sunday. Celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent , Mothering Sunday honored the mothers of England.

　　During this time many of the Englands poor worked as servants for the wealthy. As most jobs were located far from their homes, the servants would live at the houses of their employers. On Mothering Sunday the servants would have the day off and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A special cake, called the mothering cake, was often brought along to provide a festive touch.

　　As Christianity spread throughout Europe the celebration changed to honor the Mother Church - the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm. Over time the church festival blended with the Mothering Sunday celebration . People began honoring their mothers as well as the church.

　　In the United States Mothers Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe as a day dedicated to peace. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mothers Day meetings in Boston, Mass ever year.

　　In 1907 Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mothers Day. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mothers church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mothers Day on the second anniversary of her mothers death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year Mothers 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 Mothers Day. It was successful as by 1911 Mothers Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mothers 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 Mothers Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which also celebrate Mothers Day on the second Sunday of May.