Celebrating Mothers in Panama

Celebrate Mother’s Day at Cafe Caracoles with a Mother’s Day Special menu ALL DAY. While Mother’s Day is celebrated throughout the world, the date on which it is celebrated and how, depends on the country your in. In Panama, Mother’s Day is a national holiday celebrated on December 8. 

Most Panamanian families celebrate by giving mothers a day off from activities like cooking or other household chores.

The holiday is taken seriously all over the country, with many traveling to visit their mothers, give gifts and enjoy traditional dishes. It is not only mother’s who are celebrated, but also grandmothers, aunts, and godmothers.

The celebration of motherhood is as old as human culture, dating back to the celebration of Cybele, a mother of Greek gods Greece and Rome before the time of Christ. However, the day gained attention in 1908, when a woman named Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in West Virginia.  By 1911 all US states observed the holiday, and in 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed the proclamation officially creating Mother's Day as we know it.

Mother’s Day as a holiday spread world wide, usually being marked on a day significant to the local culture.

In Thailand for example, Mother’s Day is celebrated in August on the birthday of the current queen, Sirikit. In Ethiopia families gather each fall to sing songs and eat a large feast as part of Antrosht, a multi-day celebration in honor of mothers.

While Panama’s Mother’s Day was started by the Rotary Clubs of Panama, first falling on May 11, 1924, the celebrating was changed to December 8 in 1930. Panama made the decision to change the date of the country’s Mother’s Day celebration to the day of the Catholic celebration of the Immaculate Conception. This was in an effort to make the day relevant to the local culture, and to cement it as a national holiday.
According to Alonso Roy a Panamanian historian, the first celebration was a success, with shops full of people buying gifts, people flocking to cemeteries carrying flowers, and hundreds of Mother’s Day telegrams being sent. Today, the holiday is celebrated with a similar sentiment.

On December 8 many will make the journey across the country to celebrate Mother’s Day with family. Since the day coincides with a Catholic celebration many communities hold mass and a procession through the streets of the town. Many families participate in the festivities.

While in Panama mother’s day is an important day to remember, in others countries the day is little-known festival.