By Caryn Deloach

In Brazil where the national language is Portuguese, Feliz Dia das Mães means Happy Mother’s Day. The holiday is celebrated on the second Sunday in May, just as it is in the United States and mothers in this South American nation are celebrated in much the same manner as they are in the United States. Mothers are awakened with breakfast in bed and presented with cards, flowers and gifts. Some are treated to a dinner out or cooked at home. Children help around the home and encourage mom to relax. In addition many Brazilian schools prepare presentations for the mothers in the week leading up to Mother’s Day. At these gatherings children perform skits, dances and songs they prepared for their mothers and grandmothers.

However, this holiday’s beginnings came much later in Brazil than in some other nations. In some European nations the holiday can trace its beginnings back to the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. Brazil however, did not celebrate its first Mother’s Day until 1918. The first celebration was only a small one taking place in the city of Porto Alegre and was organized by the YMCA there. However, it was slow to catch on throughout the nation and in the 1930s a movement finally began to make the date official.

In 1931 there was an international feminist conference at which a Mrs. Alice Tibiriçá urged officials in Brazil to officially adopt the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. She was encouraged by the success in doing the same in the United States in 1914. Following this, a Brazilian feminist group approached their government requesting an official designation of Mother’s Day. Prompted in part by these requests, on May 5th, 1932 the president of Brazil, Getúlio Vargas signed a decree officially naming the second Sunday in May, Dia das Mães. And finally in 1947, Dom Jaime de Barros Câmara, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro added Mother’s Day to the official calendar of the Catholic Church. This helped to increase celebrations on the holiday as Catholic groups began to hold events in honor of mothers on this day.

Today Mother’s Day or Dia das Mães is celebrated widely and enthusiastically throughout all of Brazil.

Feliz Dia das Mães!