It’s that time of year to celebrate and honor all of the mothers out there.  Here is a bit of history and some fun facts about moms.  Happy Mother’s Day from Winn Technology Group.

“Mothers are like glue. Even when you can’t see them, they’re still holding the family together.” —Susan Gale

1. “In Greek mythology spring festivals were held in honor of the maternal goddess called, Rhea. She was the wife of Cronus and was believed to be the mother of many deities.”

2. “While the modern American Mother’s Day didn’t evolve until years later, the most clear precursor to the holiday was the Christian celebration of “Mothering Sunday.” In the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, Mothering Sunday fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent, where parishioners would return to their “mother” church.”

3. “In 1912, Anna Jarvis trademarked both ‘Mother's Day' and ‘the second Sunday in May'. She also created Mother's Day International Association.”

4. “Social activist Julia Ward Howe first brought the idea of a day centering on mothers to the United States after the Civil War, but Howe's version was much different from the flowers-and-hugs version we know today. Howe wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation and envisioned a Mother's Day for Peace, in which women would protest against war. Some groups still observe the holiday in this manner, one of the most famous being a huge crowd of women who gathered outside the Lawrence Livermore Library at the University of California in 1982 to protest nuclear weapons.”

5. “Approximately 65% of card sales occur five days prior to Mother's Day.”

6. “Coretta Scott King, the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., organized a march on Mother’s Day in 1968 in support of underprivileged women and children.”

7. “Today, Mother’s Day is celebrated in more than 50 countries, but not all on the second Sunday in May. For example, India has a ten-day Mother’s Day celebration in October.”

8. “Ancient Egyptians believed that 'Bast' was the mother of all cats on Earth, and that cats were sacred animals.”

9. “Elvis Presley, was a mama's boy. He slept in the same bed with his mother, Gladys, until he reached puberty. Up until Elvis entered high school, she walked him back and forth to school every day and made him take along his own silverware so that he wouldn't catch germs from the other kids. Gladys forbade young Elvis from going swimming or doing anything that might put him in danger. The two of them also conversed in a strange baby talk that only they could understand.”

10. “Mother’s Day is the third most popular holiday in the world, second to only Christmas and Easter.”

Key Mom Stats:

• 2 billion in the World (82.5 million in the U.S.)
• First-time Moms: Average age of new moms is 25, vs. 21 in 1970
• Kids: Modern moms average 2 kids (1950s: 3.5 kids; 1700s: 7-10 kids)
• 3 babies are born each second

Happy Mother’s Day!

(Sources: www.cutcokitchen.com, www.thedailymeal.com, www.cnn.com, www.softschools.com, www.osr.org, www.foxnews.com, www.womansday.com, www.mothersdaycelebration.com, www.happyworker.com)