Unique Lifestyle Gift Ideas: Mother’s Day Decor; Easter Chocolate; Halloween Fun Outrageous

Posted by dodo

Mother’s Day Creative Gift Ideas

The role of a mother has long been revered, with Mother Earth being worshipped in many forms. The origins of Mothering Sunday, known in the USA as Mother’s Day and celebrated later in the year, are therefore unclear. It may have very early pagan origins but it is probable that it began with the medieval practice of visiting the cathedral of the diocese or Mother Church on the fourth Sunday in Lent. However, the close proximity of Lady Day, celebrated on 25 March and meant to honour the Mother of God, may have contributed to the tradition. The fourth Sunday in Lent is also acknowledged as the day on which the feeding of the five thousand took place. This could explain why it was a day on which the restrictions of Lent were set aside and a feast prepared.

There is no record of the day as a celebration of motherhood among families until the mid-seventeenth century. At that time, people working in service would be given the day off, to visit their mothers who they may not have seen for many months. The principal purpose of the visit was to take her a present, a bunch of flowers or something good to eat; the most common edible gift being the Simnel cake.

Mothering Sunday declined in popularity towards the end of the nineteenth century, but later underwent a revival partly due to the commercially inspired and separate occasion of Mother’s Day in the USA. Initiated in 1907 by a Miss Anna Jarvis who chose the anniversary of her mother’s death, the second Sunday in May, to commemorate Mother’s Day, World War Two ensured the occasion’s success, when many homesick servicemen sent cards home.

Easter Chocolate Gift

After Mothering Sunday, Lent culminates in the annual but movable feast of Easter, the date being set by the position of the planets — ‘the first Sunday after the full moon, following the Spring Equinox’. However, if the full moon falls on a Sunday, Easter Day is celebrated the following week. Easter was originally an Anglo-Saxon pagan festival called Eosturmonath after Eostre, the goddess of dawn and spring. Easter is observed in most religions, if not in the Christian context, then as the start of spring, and therefore as a time of rebirth and renewal.

In the Jewish religion, Passover is celebrated to commemorate the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt and the Paschal lamb has become the symbol of Christ as the sacrificial lamb in Christian doctrine. Lamb is therefore a traditional food for this time in both religions, as are eggs which represent rebirth and the continuity of life. For the Passover meal, an egg and a lamb-bone are among the foods arranged on a plate to symbolize aspects of the Passover story, which is ceremonially read. The symbolic food also includes salt-water for tears and bitter herbs for suffering.

There are many traditions associated with Easter and particularly with eggs, but some of the most unusual originate from Germany. For example, in the sixteenth century, young couples exchanged eggs at Eastertime as a way of declaring their intent for one another — if only one was given it meant the relationship would soon end, if six were exchanged, then a marriage would take place.

Rabbits or ‘bunnies’ are symbols frequently associated with Easter but originally it was the hare, as the animal associated with the goddess Eostre, who portrayed spring. In the USA rabbits have taken the place of European hares, and the brightly coloured and decorated eggs given at Easter are traditionally supposed to be laid by the hare or rabbit. Easter is generally celebrated in April or at the end of March and an old saying still describes excessively exuberant people as being ‘Mad as a March Hare’.

Halloween Fun Outrageous Gift

As spring is celebrated as a period of rebirth and renewal, so the fading and passing of the year is also marked. Autumn and the arrival of winter is heralded by Hallowe’en celebrations. These days little effort is made to disguise the pagan origins of the event. Children dress-up in frightening masks and carry gruesomely sculpted pumpkin-face lanterns from house to house, knocking on doors, playing pranks and asking for Trick or Treat. This custom is a natural extension of the pagan tradition of Souling, when village youths would dress like ‘the risen souls of the dead’ and demons which were said to roam the earth and cause mischief at that time.

Anglo-Saxons commemorated their god of war, Thor, at Hallowe’en and baked a spicy Thor cake, now known as ginger parkin or moggy parkin. The ingredients of oats, butter, treacle and spices were earthly offerings to the god. For Celtic people, 31 October was Winter’s Eve and marked the beginning of their new year. In Christian times, attempts were made to replace the pagan beliefs and customs with the festivals of All Saints (also known as All Hallows) on 1 November and the feast of All Souls’ Day on 2 November, when services were held at which prayers were offered for the departed.

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