In Mexico during May we celebrate two important events. The first one is on May 10th, to acknowledge moms, their hard work and their love. The second one is on May 15th, a day to say thanks to our teachers, for always making an effort to share their knowledge so we can learn in a fun and interesting way.
Let’s read about different countries around the world and how they celebrate their mothers.
In India: They have a 10-Day Festival known as Durga Puja. Families spend weeks preparing food, gifts and decorating their homes for the festival. This has been a celebration since the sixteenth century and it’s considered a religious ceremony but also time to spend with family.
In Japan: Mother’s day is the second Sunday of May and the traditional presents are flowers, but not any flowers, carnations, because they express love and admiration.
In France: Mother’s day is celebrated on the last weekend of May. And back in the day, it started with mother’s being awarded with medals. A golden one if they had more than 8 children, a silver medal if they had 6 or 7 children and a bronze one if they had 4 or 5 children. Nowadays, the traditional gift is a flower-shaped cake. What do you think about this tradition?
Tell us, what do you do for mother’s day in your country?
A word from Miss Dani about Teacher’s Day:
One of my great surprises upon arriving in Mexico, way back in 2001, was finding out that teachers had their own celebration day. In Canada we don’t celebrate this day. So my first teacher’s day was so exciting. The school where I was working at the time gave us the day off and we had a meal and a raffle too. I won some tupperware, and still have them till this day. WOW! How cool is that?
We did a little research and found out that many countries celebrate their Teachers’ Day on October 5th and it’s called “World Teacher’s Day”, which was actually created by UNESCO in 1994.
Now we will take a look at a couple of other countries that celebrate teacher’s day to compare and contrast differences and similarities;
In Mexico it’s celebrated on May 15th. On this day teachers typically get the day off and schools, parents, students and peers give presents such as flowers, chocolates and meals.
In China it’s celebrated on September 10th. The theme of the celebration is set by the Ministry of Education. On this day students of all ages, especially young ones, give their teachers small homemade gifts and teacher’s day flower bouquets to show their appreciation for each of their teachers’ hard work. This Day is also when alumni will visit their old schools to catch up with their former teachers.
In Argentina it’s celebrated on September 11th. Here they celebrate on this day in memory of the president of those times who made primary education compulsory. Also, interestingly enough a public educator from the United States, named Horace Mann, brought 32 American teachers to Argentina to develop the American model of Universal education.
So here’s toasting to Mothers and Teachers around the world for their hard work day in and day out, and may we remember that we don’t necessarily need a day dedicated to them in order to celebrate them.