Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Credit where credit due
May is the month of celebration in the Philippines
This coming Sunday is “Mother’s Day”, we are all requested and invited to honour our ‘mothers on earth’. Mother’s Day was first celebrated 1913 in the U.S. and was quickly adopted as unofficial holiday all around the world. Ever since, it has been a bit controversial because many women feel that a bunch of flowers presented to them only once a year, and very often with guilty conscience, is not JUST ENOUGH! Maybe some pragmatic people must have thought: better once than never!
And they, of all people, must have felt that they should honour their women and mothers who are actively helped - side by side with their husbands, fathers, brothers and whomever - to build up a strong nation.
Meanwhile we have all come a long way. Social structures, on the whole, and family structures, in particular, have changed enormously. Therefore, a family today can well mean a mother raising her children all by herself, or a father doing the same thing.
Anyway, credit where credit is due - but not only for a single day per year. What a miserable and wretched declaration of love to someone who gave birth to us and made it possible for us to stay on this globe, It is not really easy to sincerely shape the great fate of a mother. More difficult is to fulfill an inconspicuous day’s work with vividness and dignity. Innumerable fates of mothers in those times sink unknown like the sun beneath the horizon.
I am glad still to have to mothers - however my mother-in-law starts dramatically not to recognize me any more - while my mother starts also forgetting many things.
A Happy Happy Mothers Day in advance and a hearty salute to all fathers, bind with the wish, that we also find some more days with flower bunches, restaurant invitations or confectionery for our beloved mothers - and for all us!
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# 1 Migs said:
May for me is the time of barangay fiestas and pretty girls in beautiful costumes parading the streets of Manila. But it’s also, as you pointed out, the month when Mother’s Day in the Philippines is celebrated.
So happy Mother’s Day to yours, Klaus! Lovely seeing you the other day.
# 2 john said:
And a happy Mothers Day to your mother Klaus, she is indeed a one off special lady
# 3 MarcelinaWW said:
Thank you for this excellent post, Klaus. Here’s my two cents worth related to Mother’s Day. I call it “Celebrating Womanhood and the Great Mother Earth”. Please don’t take this as a feminist view - I am far from that.
(A short excerpt from my article)
“May is one month of the year that women celebrate themselves being a woman. No, I am not talking about clothes shopping or getting a pedicure etc. I am talking about YOU, a woman, female, a vehicle of life. Like Mother Earth we give birth to another life and at the end we receive it back into the womb.
As women, we learned to be nurturers, caretakers, and accommodators. So, time goes by, day by day, month by month and for some even their whole life without understanding their place in the world, or asking simple questions such as “Who am I, or what am I? I have no answer for that either - now that I’m older. If you would have asked me these questions when I was much younger say, 35 – 40, I would have had all the answers for you.”
To all of you Lady Readers, from another woman, I honor you!!
# 4 klaus said:
Hi Migs, thanks a lot. Yeah, SHE (and we really enjoyed) with you and John. Cheers! See you before you are leaving for Manila and hopefully then later in Manila. Take good care.
# 5 klaus said:
Hi John, thank you very much. The same to yours.
# 6 klaus said:
Hi Marcelina, thanks a lot for your thoughtful comment. I wouldn’t say, that you comment in a feminist way. You are just telling the truth. Yeah, I would underline your last sentence: I honour you!!!
# 7 Teng said:
Celebration for ‘Flores de Mayo’ should be solemn but the thing is, there are member of ‘third sex’ (correct me if I’m wrong with my term) participating during the parade. That really makes the celebration awkward in many ways. I’m not against with their participation but they should put themselves in a right place. I know a lot of them are very creative and artistic, however, it is more suitable if they use their ingenuity behind scene for the sake of our Blessed Mother Mary. Peace… and advance Happy Mother’s Day to all.
# 8 klaus said:
Hi Teng, thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment. I have heard about it in yesterday’s news. I have nothing against the ‘third six’ - on the other side I also respect your opinion. I am not a Catholic, but I got married to a catholic Philippina - that’s why i respect your opinion. Happy Mother’s day also to you…