• Send Family FriendlyGreeting E-cards everyday!
• eCard History
• Free Address Book
• Pre-Schedula ecard delivery
• Notified when ecard viewed
• Free Birthday Reminder
• Send a photo with your ecard
• “NEW” SEND A QUICK NOTES ECARD
• Give a Gift Membership
• Birthday Ecards
• Holiday ecards
• Crankies Funny Ecards
• Vintage Postcards
• General Ecards – All occasion ecards
• Cards sent Free of Advertisement
• Environmentally friendly
• No Paper – No Stamps – No trees cut
• One of a kind ecards drawn by our artists
• Affordable – Less than a book of stamps!
• Not ready to join… send our free ecards

Mother’s Day History

Spiritual Origin

The majority of countries that celebrate Mother’s Day do so on the second Sunday of May. On this day, it is common for Mothers to be lavished with presents and special attention from their families, friends and loved ones. But it hasn’t always been this way.

Only recently dubbed “Mother’s Day,” the highly traditional practice of honoring of Motherhood is rooted in antiquity, and past rites typically had strong symbolic and spiritual overtones; societies tended to celebrate Goddesses and symbols rather than actual Mothers. In fact, the personal, human touch to Mother’s Day is a relatively new phenomenon. The maternal objects of adoration ranged from mythological female deities to the Christian Church itself. Only in the past few centuries did celebrations of Motherhood develop a decidedly human focus.

Goddess Isis – Early Egyptian Roots

One of the earliest historical records of a society celebrating a Mother deity can be found among the ancient Egyptians, who held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis, who was commonly regarded as the Mother of the pharaohs. Her stern, yet handsome head is typically crowned by a pair of bull horns enclosing a fiery sun orb. She is most often depicted sitting on a throne.

So the story goes, after Isis’ brother-husband Osiris was slain and dismembered in 13 pieces by their jealous brother Seth, Isis re-assembled Osiris’ body and used it to impregnate herself. She then gave birth to Horus, whom she was forced to hide amongst the reeds lest he be slaughtered by Seth. Horus grew up and defeated Seth, and then became the first ruler of a unified Egypt. Thus Isis earned her stature as the Mother of the pharaohs.

It is interesting to note that the Mother and Son imagery of Isis and Horus—in which Isis cradles and suckles her son—is strikingly similar to that of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.

Cybele – Ancient Roman Celebration

The festival of Isis was also celebrated by the Romans who used the event to commemorate an important battle and mark the beginning of Winter. Despite being an imported deity, Isis held a place at the Roman temple, and her festival—which lasted for three days—was regaled by mostly-female dancers, musicians and singers.

Yet the Roman root of Mother’s Day is perhaps more precisely found in the celebration of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, or Magna Mater (Great Mother).

Cybele stems from the Greek Goddess Rhea, who was the Mother of most of the major deities including Zeus. Rhea was therefore celebrated as a mother goddess, and the festival took place around the time of the Vernal Equinox.

Greek Celebration of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods

In Rome and Asia Minor, Cybele was the major Mother deity most similar to Rhea, the Greek mother of the Gods. Other societies worshipped similar deities including Gaia the Earth Goddess and Meter oreie the Mountain Mother. In many aspects, this Mother goddess was represented and celebrated similarly across cultures.

The Anatolian mother goddess festivals, however, were said to be so wild that they were eventually discouraged or banned. But more conservative celebrations of Cybele and her equivalents included eating honey cakes and sharing flowers in the morning. This was practiced throughout Asia Minor—and eventually in Rome.

The Roman celebration of Magna Mater fell between March 15 and March 22, just around the same time as the Greek festival in honor of Rhea. Referred to as Hilaria, games were held in honor of the Mother of the gods. Also customary was a procession through the streets with a statue of the goddess carried at the head, followed by a display of elaborate arts and crafts.

European Celebration – Celebrating Lent & Mother Church

A later incarnation of a holiday to honor Motherhood came from Europe. It fell on the fourth Sunday Lent (the 40 days of fasting preceding Easter Sunday). Early Christians initially used the day to honor the church in which they were baptized, which they knew as their “Mother Church.” This place of worship would be decorated with jewels, flowers and other offerings.

Mothering Day in Europe – Family Gatherings With Mom

In the 1600′s a clerical decree in England broadened the celebration to include real Mothers, earning the name Mothering Day. Mothering Day became an especially compassionate holiday toward the working classes of England. During this Lenten Sunday, servants and trade workers were allowed to travel back to their towns of origin to visit their families. Mothering Day also provided a one-day reprieve from the fasting and penance of Lent so that families across England could enjoy a sumptuous family feast—Mother was the guest of honor. Mothers were presented with cakes and flowers, as well as a visit from their beloved and distant children.

History of American Celebration

When the first English settlers came to America, they discontinued the tradition of Mothering Day. While the British holiday would live on, the American Mother’s Day would be invented—with an entirely new history—centuries later. One explanation for the settlers’ discontinuation of Mothering Day was that they just didn’t have time; they lived under harsh conditions and were forced to work long hours in order to survive. Another possibility, however, is that Mothering Day conflicted with their Puritan ideals. Fleeing England to practice a more conservative Christianity without being persecuted, the pilgrims ignored the more secular holidays, focusing instead on a no-frills devotion to God. For example, even holidays such as Christmas and Easter were much more somber occasions for the pilgrims, usually taking place in a Church that was stripped of all extraneous ornamentation.

FILL THEIR eMAIL BOXES WITH  SURPRISES 

They will definitely feel the love this Easter with fun animated musical greeting cards from their family and friends.

Birthday Ecard

E-cards! Think about it! If you are like me, you have a ton of printed cards in a drawer somewhere that are just taking up room. They will certainly end up in the recycling bin or garbage, as these were also the resting places for the envelopes they came in. E-cards have been ECO, environmentally friendly or “green” from their inception – no trees sacrificed, no polluting color inks to be used, no gas for shopping, no postage for mailing (sorry Post Office). In addition to printed cards ending up in the garbage, think of all the unsold cards that are left over in stores after a holiday.  Where do they end up? You guessed it. LANDFILL!   

 As with most everything in life we are all moving to a cleaner and more environmentally aware way of life.  Our personal greetings to one another should and can follow the same path.  A good majority of people have seen or are, at least, aware of the crusade to reverse global warming brought to the public eye by former vice president Al Gore and his movie “ An Inconvenient Truth”.   Being green isn’t only good for our health. It may be essential to the survival of humankind as a whole.  This makes every small bit we can do to help the environment just that much more important.

Try Pamela Gladding elegant e-cards (www.pamelagladding.com) instead of the old paper and ink cards and see how they are just as enjoyable, if not more so, with their animated and musical elements. Enjoy, while you are doing your part to save our planet.

Join us for Father’s Day…  send fun animated musical ecards created artists at www.pamelagladding.com

Father’s Day is a celebration inaugurated in the early twentieth century to complement Mother’s Day in celebrating fatherhood and male parenting, and to honor and commemorate fathers and forefathers. Father’s Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves gift-giving, and special dinners to fathers and family-oriented activities. In 2008, it was celebrated on June 15 in many countries. It originated in Spokane, Washington.^[1] In 2009, it will be celebrated on June 21 in many countries. In a few Catholic countries, it is celebrated on the Feast of St. Joseph

The first observance of Father’s Day is believed to have been held on July 5 1908 in a church located in Fairmont, West Virginia, by Dr. Robert Webb of West Virginia at the Central United Methodist Church of Fairmont.^[2]

Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd of Washington thought independently of the holiday one Sunday in 1909 while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at the Central Methodist Episcopal Church at Spokane,^[1] and she arranged a tribute for her father in June 19, 1910. She was the first to solicit the idea of having an official Father’s Day observance.

It took many years to make the holiday official. In spite of support from the YWCA, the YMCA and churches, it ran the risk of disappearing from the calendar.^[3] Where Mother’s Day was met with enthusiasm, Father’s Day was met with laughter.^[3] The holiday was gathering attention slowly, but the wrong reasons: it was the target of much satire, parody and derision, including jokes from the local newspaper Spokesman-Review.^[3] Many people saw it as just the first step in filling the calendar with mindless promotions like “Grandparents’ Day”, “Professional Secretaries’ Day”, etc. all the way down to “National Clean Your Desk Day”.^[3]

A bill was introduced on 1913^[4], US President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea in 1924,^{[citation needed]} a national committee was formed in the 1930s by trade groups in order to legitimize the holiday,^[5]

In addition to Father’s Day, International Men’s Day is celebrated in many countries, most often on November 19.

(history.com  HISTORY OF THE CHRISTMAS TREE

Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.

In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk in his crown. At the solstice, when Ra began to recover from the illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm rushes which symbolized for them the triumph of life over death.

Early Romans marked the solstice with a feast called the Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon farms and orchards would be green and fruitful. To mark the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs. In Northern Europe the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. The fierce Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder.

Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.

Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims’s second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.” In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.

In 1846, the popular royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were sketched in the Illustrated London News standing with their children around a Christmas tree. Unlike the previous royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at court immediately became fashionable—not only in Britain, but with fashion-conscious East Coast American Society. The Christmas tree had arrived.

By the 1890s Christmas ornaments were arriving from Germany and Christmas tree popularity was on the rise around the U.S. It was noted that Europeans used small trees about four feet in height, while Americans liked their Christmas trees to reach from floor to ceiling.

The early 20th century saw Americans decorating their trees mainly with homemade ornaments, while the German-American sect continued to use apples, nuts, and marzipan cookies. Popcorn joined in after being dyed bright colors and interlaced with berries and nuts. Electricity brought about Christmas lights, making it possible for Christmas trees to glow for days on end. With this, Christmas trees began to appear in town squares across the country and having a Christmas tree in the home became an American tradition