Volume 16 , Issue 16

NW Okie's Journey

Did you know ... The celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele?

Although roots of Mother's Day can be traced in the United Kingdom and the United States as of the late 19th century, the origins of this famous holiday do go back to the era of ancient Greece.

It was the Ancient Greeks that used to hold an annual spring festival in honor of Rhea, the Titan daughter of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus, which by classical Greeks was said to be the mother of the Olympian goddesses and gods, but not an Olympian goddess on her own.

They say in the early traditions, the figure of Rhea was strongly associated with Cybele, who was received as a rather foreign, exotic mystery-goddess who arrived in a lion-drawn chariot to the accompaniment of wild music, wine followed by disorderly conduct and orgiastic dances.

It seems Ancient Romans celebrated spring festivals dedicated to Magna Mater (latin for "Great Mother"), their form of Cybele.

Early Christians celebrated Mother's Day of sorts during the festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary.

Here is wishing a Happy Mother's Day to All mothers, young and old. Read more about the history of Mother's Day in this week's OkieLegacy ezine/tabloid.

Perhaps you noticed that we are in the process of moving our OkieLegacy journal ezine/tabloid over to our NW OkieLegacy (okielegacy.net) website. Thanks for your patience as we work out the kinks, bugs that may arise because of this move. Thanks goes out to my ITech son, Michael, for his database and programming experience. Thanks, Michael!

Cicero once said, "To be ignorant of the past is to remain as a child."

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