Essential Oils and Mother's Day

The ancient Greeks honored mothers in their annual spring festival dedicated to Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. They would pay tribute with honey-cakes, fine drinks and flowers at dawn. An earlier version of the present day Mother's Day tradition of breakfast in bed. Early Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary. In England this tradition expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday. Servants were given the day off and were encouraged to spend it with their mothers. When the English settled in America, they brought with them many of their traditions but this one did not survive. In 1872 Julia Ward Howe, an American writer, organized a day in honor of mothers dedicated to peace. While this didn't become a tradition, it created the spark that inspired Anna Jarvis, a Philadelphia schoolteacher to petition to have a Mother's Day formally recognized. She chose the second Sunday in May as this was the anniversary of her mother's death. She wrote many letters and campaigned hard until 1914 Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day a National Holiday. The tradition of wearing or the giving of carnations was also started by Anna Jarvis. Carnations where her mother's favorite flower and a white carnation was given to everyone at the service. Today white carnations are given to those whose mother's are deceased and colored carnations to those whose mothers are still alive.

A Mother's Day tradition that comes from Anna Jarvis is the wearing or giving of carnations. The carnation was her mother's favorite flower. A colored carnation is worn by those whose mothers are living, while a white one is worn by those whose mothers are deceased.

So which essential oils do we want to use to create a blend that captures all our mother's mean to us?

While there is an absolute available of carnation it is not freely available and it is pretty expensive so let's forget about that for now. What else can we use?

• We could try and approximate the aroma of a carnation by blending 2 drops ylang ylang and 3 drops black pepper or 3 drops ylang ylang, 1 drop rose, 6 drops black pepper.
• We could also put together a blend that is made up of our own or our mother's favorite aromas. This will be unique and different for each of us.
• We could put together a blend of essential oils that encompasses the 'essence' of the mother archetype. Oils one could consider include: cistus, fennel, frankincense, jasmine, marjoram, myrtle, neroli, patchouli, rose and ylang ylang .

Whatever you choose to do have fun with it and create something that is special for you and your family.

If you are looking for a nice gift to make for your mother for Mother's Day there is still time to do this and I have lots of easy and fun recipes in my e-Book Aromatic Gifts for all ages and for all seasons.

In my blender today is the mock carnation blend of : 3 drops ylang ylang, 1 drop rose and 6 drops black pepper. I'll try the other mock blend tomorrow and on Friday I'll play around with some of the oils from the 'essence' of the mother archetype. By Sunday I'll have my blend. Hope you all do too!