Why did this Country Ban Mother's Day?
Posted: Wednesday, May 07, 2008
by Kimberly
http://kimberlyinChance.blogspot.com
I had never really thought about Mother's Day being a universal celebration
worldwide.&
nbsp;Of course we all have mothers, but I guess I just didn't give it very
much thought on how other countries celebrate this very special holiday.
I randomly selected the country of Japan and was quite amused to find
that the Japanese call Mother's Day "haha no hi." Japanese Christians
in Japan had already been celebrating Mother's Day since 1913, based on the
American practice. They celebrate on the second Sunday of May.
Celebrating "haha no hi" became increasingly popular and grew steadily into
the 1930's. This all came to a screeching halt at the start of
WWII. The Japanese government banned all western cultures, including the
celebration of "Mother's Day."
The tradition of Mother's Day was taken up again after the war had ended.
With so many killed during WWII, the Japanese government wanted to help comfort
all those mothers who lost their son's. The celebration of Mother's Day quickly
resumed it's popularity and was back in full swing by 1949.
During the celebration of "haha no hi," the Japanese mothers are showered
with traditional feasts, scarves, handbags and red carnations. The one tradition
that I found particularly interesting was," the contest." All children between
the ages of 6-14 years may enter. These children would submit drawings that
they had made of their mothers. The winning entries would then go on tour
throughout Japan and other surrounding countries, promoting "Mother's and peace"!
This contest is held every four years.
With every holiday being so commercialized here in the United
States, we easily forget why we are celebrating a particular day. I
especially like the idea of "the contest". Promoting Mother's and
peace is exactly what our children and this "great country" of ours needs.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Kimberly, Thanks for the ride through Mother's day history.James,Thank you for reading my article.
I liked your article. I don't mean to offend you, but I don't think finding a phrase in some other language "amusing" is a way to respect the country or the people. Probably the Japanese find the phrase "Mother's Day" just as amusing.Hi Sulagna, You haven't offended me at all. I wasn't even thinking about the actual Japanese translation of Mothers Day as being amusing, What I was referring to was the haha (laughter) to the no hi (drug use) that reminded me of a Puff The Magic Dragon article I had written a while back. Some interpreted that song to be a child's fantasy while some interpreted it as drug use. I guess my sense of humor is a little off. Sorry if I offended anybody that certainly wasn't my intentions. Thank you for reading my article Sulagna. Kimberly
Hi Kimberly, I enjoyed your article. I've never really given it any thought, but it now makes sense that other countries would also make a special day to honor mothers. I did not get the sense that there was anything malicious in how you represented the Japanese name for Mother's Day. I think finding humor in anything is perfectly fine as long as it is not malicious. When I visited Germany with my husband, we stayed with his relatives. At one point after Bernd had translated a difficult conversation for me, Uncle Emil said that he could speak American. He proceeded to say "arr arr arr" over and over. We all had a good laugh about it. Apparently, to Germans, we all sound like pirates. Please excuse me, I just had to get up on my little soapbox for a while. I am going to look into how other countries celebrate Mother's Day because of your article. I agree that we could take a page out of Japan's book. DianneThank you for reading my article Dianne and leaving such a nice comment. I too, just never thought about how other countries honor their mothers. I love to find humor in everything and didn't have a clue we sound like pirates. Take care Kimberly
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