Honor your father and mother …
“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord” (Colossians 3:20)
“Honor your father and mother” - which is the first commandment with a promise - “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth” (Ephesians 6:2-3) – these are instructions for each of us. Every year in spring, on the second Sunday of May, we celebrate Mother's Day. This year was not the exception. On the 13th of May after the church service at ULC Lord’s Cross congregation in Kremenets children from Sunday school presented a concert devoted to Mother’s Day. During a few weeks children scrupulously learned new poems and songs in order to make happy their dearest mothers! Sincere applause and tears of joy became the best reward for the little actors.
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This nice holiday was also celebrated at GoL life-center in Kremenets. Many women – present mothers with their children and future mothers - came for a Bible Study to the life-center in order to recall history of the holiday, its origin and honor mothers with songs, poems, music and just sincere and warm words. Pastor Roman Andruntsiv opened the Study with a joint prayer.
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Then with great interest we learned the history of the holiday. So what is its origin? A festival in honor of the goddess Rhea, celebrated in Ancient Greece every spring, is considered to be one of the oldest holidays devoted to a mother. Rhea was the wife of god Kronos and the mother many gods and goddesses. Approximately in 250 BC Romans began to celebrate a religious holiday devoted to Mother goddess Cybele which lasted for three days - from March 15th to March 18th. At the beginning of the 17th century in England on the fourth Sunday of Lent people celebrated Mothering Sunday which was the holiday of all mothers in England. On this day people used to visit their mothers and bring them a special cake which was even called «mother’s cake». However Mother’s Day became an international holiday due to the USA. In 1908 a young American from Philadelphia, Anna Dzhervis took the initiative to honor mothers in the memory of her mother, who died prematurely. Anna wrote letters to governmental institutions and legislative bodies in the USA with the request of one day a year devoted to honoring mothers. Her efforts were successful - in 1910 Virginia declared the first Mother's Day as an official holiday. Four years later, in 1914 the president of the United States Woodrow Wilson declared Mother’s Day as an official holiday of all the States of America. Gradually the second Sunday of May became all mothers’ holiday for 23 countries in the world and more than 30 countries chose different days for honoring mothers. In Ukraine a woman has always been considered to be a family protector. Mother’s Day was celebrated in Ukrainian society for the first time in 1928 by the Union of Ukrainian Women in Canada. Next year this holiday was already celebrated in Lviv. In 1939 Soviet Union prohibited to celebrate this holiday. Due to the efforts of public organizations, the Union of Ukrainian Women in particular, Mother’s Day has been celebrated in Ukraine since 1990. But only later Mother’s Day became an official holiday of Ukraine. In 1999 Ukrainian President proclaimed the second Sunday of May as the official day of Mother’s Day celebration.
Life-center clients listened to this story with great interest. Then we enjoyed singing songs, playing guitar and bandura (a big Ukrainian folk instrument), reading poems and small celebration in a warm friendly atmosphere.
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Mother’s Day is indeed one of most touching holidays because each of us remembers their unique mothers and bears her image in their hearts from the childhood to the last days of life. Mother is the person who always understands everything, feels sympathetic, is very devoted and will love you notwithstanding any circumstances. During the last minutes of His earthly life Jesus Christ worried about His mother. Here is what Gospel from John says about it: When Jesus saw His mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to His mother, “Dear woman, here is your son” (John 19:26). Children must take care and love their parents, try to make them happy with their actions and behavior. In the book of Solomon's Proverbs one can find the following words: "Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old." (Proverbs 23:22).
Nina Andreychuk,
Gol pro-life counselor,
Kremenets, Ukraine.
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