MEANING: We turn to the Encyclopedia Britannica — online, of course — to tell us how Mother’s Day came into being.

“During the Middle Ages the custom developed of allowing those who had moved away to visit their home parishes and their mothers on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. This became Mothering Sunday in Britain, where it continued into modern times, although it has largely been replaced by Mother’s Day.”

Mother’s Day this year is on Sunday.

“Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, whose mother had organized women’s groups to promote friendship and health, originated Mother’s Day. On May 12, 1907, she held a memorial service at her late mother’s church in Grafton, W.Va. Within five years virtually every state was observing the day, and in 1914 U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson made it a national holiday. Although Jarvis had promoted the wearing of a white carnation as a tribute to one’s mother, the custom developed of wearing a red or pink carnation to represent a living mother or a white carnation for a mother who was deceased.”

Over time, the day came to include those who played the roles of mothers, such as grandmothers and aunts. As with any holiday, commercialization soon followed.

Festivals honoring mothers and mother goddesses date back to ancient times.

The Phrygians held a festival for Cybele, the Great Mother of the Gods, as did the Greeks for the goddess Rhea.

However one celebrates, those of us here at The Era wish all of you a Happy Mother’s Day.