What The Heck Is Mother's Day?
It all began with a former apprentice of mine. Roderick, I believe the boy's name was. A proper and pretentious Solamnic (yes, yes; I see the redundancy too, thank you very much) from a good Solanthas family, if I remember correctly. An adequate apprentice mage, albeit unfortunately lacking in a good sense of wit (what is it about Solamnic upper class and a good, healthy sense of humor?).
Yes. Believe it or not, every Raistlin has one or more apprentices. It is worthy of note, however, that each Raistlin has their own definition of "apprentice". But I digress.
This story started when the lad walked into my study one morning. As I knew he had at least half a George Carlin book left to read (I firmly believe in giving my apprentices a good grounding in the Humanities), I was surprised to see him. That surprise was quickly replaced when the boy asked his question.
"Can I have a couple hours this afternoon off so I can write home? Mother's Day is coming up and I want the letter to get to her on time this year."
Well, I must admit, the request rather surprised me. My thoughts stuttered over the obvious question (exactly what does a Black Robe apprentice write home to mom about?), before connecting with the less obvious one.
"As I recall, your mother's Day of Life-Gift was four months ago, Roderick. I remember that distinctly. Surely you do not think it will take eight months for a letter to get to her?"
"No Master. Not my mother's Day of Life-Gift. Mother's Day. All mothers have a day. It's a traditional part of being a mother."
Well, now I was well and truly stumped. This was a new one for me. And holidays are such fun to mock. How could I have possibly missed this one?
Anyway, to quickly summarize the rest of the conversation (which was full of more sentimental twaddle then I thought my study could possibly survive), I gave Roderick my permission and he excitedly rushed off (apprentices these days have no sense of the dignified propriety required of all evil mages). First working up a custom spell to copy whatever letter the lad might send today (the contents which subsequently proved of immense amusement to me), I then turned to confront this problem of my ignorance over this "Mother's Day" nonsense. I knew of version "family days" venerated in Ansalon, but nothing about a day specifically for mothers. I spent the rest of the afternoon and well into the next day obtaining and compiling information from my network (funny how informed one can become with a few simple summonings; never let it be said that only those neutral-type folks can stay reliably informed about the world). The tradition of a "Mother's Day" proved amazingly prevalent throughout Ansalon, although it was not always celebrated on the same day as I discovered.
Solamnia/Palanthas/Ergoth
I admit, when I started my information gathering, I suspected the ever-traditional Solamnics were the obvious ones to have created this holiday. To my surprise, however, that wasn't the case at all. The tradition dated from antiquity, long before Solamnia ever became a nation. But, researching the Solamnic tradition made subsequent research of the other races and cultures easier.
Though I primarily address Solamnics in this section, I discovered that Ergothians, as well as the people of Palanthas, Kalaman, and others of central Ansalon with historically strong ties to Solamnia, maintain fundamentally identical traditions, including celebrating this Mother's Day on the same day as the Solamnics.
The Solamnic Mother's Day is celebrated on Secondmonth Twenty-first day in Solamnia, generally about one month before Spring Dawning. It is a winter holiday because of the more mild weather typically encountered in Palanthas and much of coastal Solamnia come Secondmonth and because knights and other soldier-types are still at home for the winter.
The tradition among Solamnic peasants is that this day is intended as a mother's day off from performing all the chores of housework and cooking. The husband and children of the household are supposed to take over all these duties, while the mother is supposed to relax all day in her most comfortable chair and allow her loved ones to dote upon her. Of course, given how experienced the men and children are at performing these domestic tasks (only performing them this one time a year), I can only imagine the disasters that ensue in every Solamnic house on this day. Undoubtedly by mid-afternoon, every Solamnic mother is back to performing at least the cooking, if only to ensure that she actually enjoys one edible meal this day.
Most traditions of the major Solamnic noble families seem to revolve around similar ideas as those of the peasants. The mother is not supposed to do any housework, which is to be performed by the husband and children. Of course, considering how much work the average noblewomen does around a household anyway, I cannot see this tradition as anything more then a convenient fiction. Husbands merely issue orders to the household servants who, just as they do for the rest of the year when the mother is running the show, "translate" those orders from obscure gibberish into actual, viable work tasks. However, there are some families where the husband and children, employing some kind of "noblesse oblige" explanation, dismiss the servants for the day and try and perform the cooking and housework themselves. Naturally, this results in an even more horrific disaster then that "celebrated" by the peasants.
As absurd as this all seems, however, the Solamnics continue to view this mother's day as a worthwhile and valuable tradition, and all take it very seriously.
Urban Abanasinians
The people of Haven, New Ports, Solace, and the surrounding townships generally follow the same traditions as Solamnics (typically with the same, potentially disastrous, annual results in each household). However, their mother's day is celebrated on Ninthmonth Twenty-fifth day, three days after Harvest Come. I was not able to learn exactly why that day was selected. However, regional folklore suggests to me that, far back in history, mothers were the ones to select that particular day. Hazarding a reasonable guess, however, I guess the leftovers from Harvest Come feasts are still at least somewhat edible. That being the case, the mothers in that region are a lot less likely to starve then their Solamnic counterparts when their menfolk and children take over the domestic duties.
There is a lot to be said for maternal pragmatism.
Elves
I was interested to discover that elves do not celebrate any sort of "Mother's Day". In fact, those that I talked to thought of it as a "quaint and unnecessary absurdity of the humans".
I guess, if a typical elf has to live an entire centuries-long life always within a short distance of a mother who remains, for centuries, looking exactly the same age the elf is, that might remove some of the mother-child distinction in perspective that justifies the holiday among other races and cultures. Or perhaps the lack of a Mother's Day is just cultural rebellion resulting from every elf child apparently being spoiled rotten by their mother during their first hundred years of life.
Dwarves
The fact that dwarves celebrate a Mother's Day was even less surprising to me then that Solamnics do (once I learned the point of the holiday). Dwarves are very family-oriented, irrespective of whether one is talking about hill, mountain, or gully dwarves.
Mountain dwarves celebrate their Mother's Day on Fifthmonth Ninth day. Hill dwarves, in a blindingly obvious attempt to divorce their tradition from that of their mountain cousins, celebrate their Mother's Day on Ninthmonth Fifth day. Gully dwarves celebrate their Mother's Day on Two (the obvious usefulness and flexibility of the gully dwarf calendar remains an inspiration to us all).
Unlike the Solamnics, dwarf tradition does not involve the mother taking a break on Mother's Day (unlike humans, dwarves do not generally allow sentimentality to outweigh practicality). Instead, it is the tradition of all dwarves to give their mother a gift made with their own hands, and using their own skill (and sometimes lack thereof). This goes a long way towards explaining the sheer number of knives, pots, knickknacks, and kegs of booze that most dwarf matrons seem to always possess in their homes. As for gully dwarf gifts...the less said about those, the better. I do believe most of our Live Ones are less disgusting looking then the "potholder" I saw a gully dwarf gift to his tearfully proud mother.
Gnomes
Like all of gnome society, the tradition of a Mother's Day is hardwired into gnomish life. The holiday takes place on Eleventhmonth Fourteenth day, the day after the gnomish Updateandverifythedetailsofyourname Day (unsurprising, as the day spent at the local chapter office of the Genealogy Guild is likely the only day of the year the average gnome might remember he actually has a family).
The traditional Mother's Day gift is to bring the gnome's most recent invention to the home of the mother. Some gnomes spend a couple years trying to transport their invention to the home of their mother, inventing new inventions to do so, and therefore invalidating the reason for transporting the original invention in the first place. The point, as I understand it, is to honor and thank his or her mother for bring up a skillful child. The end results of such demonstrations honestly make me wonder why there are still any gnomish mothers alive at all, but my understanding is that there is a tradition (established after years in committee) for all gnomish matrons to either invent, or commission the invention of, special blast-proof viewing rooms/structures.
Kender
I have to confess, this tradition was a surprise when I first heard about it. Kender wanderlust (and mortality rates) would seem to make Mother's Day something of an impossibility. After all, if one's mother could be just about anywhere in the world, is constantly moving, and/or is likely to be dead after a particularly dramatic "Ooops...", how does one follow such a holiday.
Kender have, however, found a way around this in a manner typical of both kender personality and tradition. Each kender picks one day of the year as his or her personal Mother's Day on his or her first day of wanderlust. Most of them pick either their Day of Life-gift or the day of Spring Dawning as their Mother's Day for convenience, though I heard tales of other days being chosen. On this day, the kender will give a small gift to every mother he or she meets, no matter what race (adventurers with brains should find out in advance which day this for their short companions BEFORE the group goes raiding the lair of a female dragon). As little items coincidently (and inevitably) disappear from that mother's house at the same time, this kender tradition is generally greeted with reactions ranging from exasperation to resignation. Once word starts getting around town that an itinerant kender traveler is "celebrating Mother's Day", the remaining town matrons go out of their way to hide from the traveler for the rest of the day (needless to say, this is quite a challenge during the Spring Dawning festivities). Those that do not succeed in staying out of sight often pretend to be old maids, and suggest others for the kender to visit his or her filial generosity upon (for the more malicious town matrons, this can be a source of much amusement and/or revenge).
Draconians
I mention draconians not because they have a Mother's Day (which would be odd, considering how very few, if any, draconian mothers there presently might be), but instead because the draconians of Teyr are positively fascinated by the idea of creating one (complete with all the traditions and sentiments that all the other races enjoy; it doesn't seem to bother the draconians that adopting all the traditions at once might not be a good idea...). Apparently, since the draconians are in the unique position of inventing draconian family traditions at the same time they are inventing draconian families, Kang and his bunch have determined that, in order to have proper families, there has to be a Mother's Day.
One can only hope that the future draconian mothers will be up to the challenge of crafting a Mother's Day worthy of themselves (and keeping their husbands from doing the same) when the time comes. You DO NOT want a bunch of engineers coming up with this sort of thing in committee...
Knights of Takhisis/Neraka
I received one last surprise piece of information regarding Mother's Day traditions, as I was finalizing this document for the update. Who would have thought that the most tyrannical and ruthless military organization on the continent would actually recognize, let alone follow with almost religious devotion, a holiday like a Mother's Day?
Then it occurred to me who founded the Knights of Takhisis.
Based on my information, Mother's Day among the Knights of Takhisis is Sixthmonth Twenty-second day, the day after the usual celebration of Midsummer. Since this is typically the height of the military campaign season, each mother receives a letter from her son or daughter, sent on this date from where ever the knight is stationed. Apparently, the writing of this letter to be sent on this day is an absolute requirement in the Order (though the length, depth, and sincerity of the letter is up to the individual knight). Failure to comply results in execution, unless the knight can prove to his or her advocate that his or her mother has passed away. Knights for whom this is the case instead pull additional duties in the week leading up to this date, so their brother and sister knights have adequate time to write their letters.
The vision of a proud Zeboim devotedly reading her son's letters is going to leave me laughing for weeks...
As the Knights have evolved into the Knights of Neraka however, this requirement has suffered from a certain lack of enforcement among the more "progressive" senior knights. Though reports released during the War of Souls indicated there would be a dramatic resurgence in the enforcement of this requirement at the command of Lord Mina (somehow, given her background, that does not surprise me...), the number of knights that strictly adheres to the old standards and traditions established by Ariakan dwindles.
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