Family Day is Israel's answer to Mother's Day or Father's Day or Grandparent's Day, traditionally celebrated by Hallmark in the United States. When Raphaela was in nursery and kindergarten, they made more of a fuss about it, this year it seems to have gone by almost un-noticed by her First Grade teacher.
This morning I took a picture of our family, and explained to Raphaela that today's holiday works for everyone, all kinds of different situations, because all of them are loving and valid.
Raphaela nodded her head and said, "God has the biggest family of all, everyone is related to him!"
2 comments:
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-hated-family-day-until-i-realized-this/
"But while I was writing about this – angry, pissed off (overcompensating, let’s be real) I realised something:
The people who created the idea of Family Day in Israel came from the most humbling, stark and broken terrain of all.
We are a country founded by immigrants who left everything behind — parents, grandparents, everyone. And Holocaust survivors, who lost everything.
The Family they imagined – the perfect family in the citrus orchard (again, we DO love our citrus orchards) was THEIR unattainable dream — and a reflection of the nation they wanted to build.
And you know what? Yeah, every family IS different – and the founders of the state of Israel and the first generation who helped build this state knew that best of all.
And even though my family doesn’t look like the family anyone imagines really — and I bet yours doesn’t, either — the fact that we have the luxury to dream of such a thing and build our own imperfect and wonderful and messy model on our own terms, is worth celebrating."
i dont like haaretz but here is an article about origins of family day
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/decades-later-woman-behind-israel-s-mother-s-day-is-still-proud-1.414252
If there is one thing Nechama Biedermann is proud of, it is her contribution to establishing Mother's Day in Israel in the 1950s. She was only 11 years old when, in a letter to the children's newspaper Haaretz Shelanu, she suggested creating Mother's Day on the date of Henrietta Szold's death. The surprising thing - and apparently also the reason why it is so deeply etched in Biedermann's memory - is that her suggestion was accepted right away.
Perhaps it happened because it made a lot of sense: Szold was referred to at the time "the children's mother," due to her major role in the Youth Aliyah organization. And perhaps it was also because the short letter (published on November 14, 1951) was written in a serious tone by a girl who knew what she was talking about.
"I thought that lots of people like me who heard about the custom of celebrating Mother's Day would agree that our country, too, should institute a Mother's Day for the Jewish mother on the date of Henrietta Szold's death," wrote the young Nechama Frankel (Biedermann's maiden name) of Herzliya.
A few lines later, the paper's comment appeared: "Remember, children and fathers: On the second day of the [Hebrew] month of Adar 5712, we will celebrate the first Mother's Day in the State of Israel. That day, don't let your mother stand in line, cook, or do laundry; you will take care of all these tasks. That day, try to make your mother proud." The decision was made.
Though Henrietta Szold is always mentioned in every reference to Mother's Day, the girl who made the connection between them was forgotten as time went by. But the girl herself did not forget. Biedermann, now 72, is a retired microbiologist, married, a mother of three and a grandmother. In her apartment in a high-rise tower in one of Tel Aviv's northern neighborhoods, she recalls the past with visible excitement.
For her, it seems, her minimal but decisive involvement in the life of the young state was a defining moment. The story is always with her. When her kids were young, she used to tell it in their kindergartens on Mother's Day. Now, she tells it in her grandchildren's kindergartens on Family Day.
"My mother told me about Mother's Day when I was little," Biedermann said, explaining the background to her letter. "She grew up in Lodz, Poland in a matriarchal family. My grandmother was the anchor of the family. In Poland, they used to celebrate Mother's Day, and in their home, the importance of this day was a given."
Dan Almagor, who over the years composed quite a few songs for Mother's Day, noted that in the 1930s, Zionist kids in Poland would donate money and buy Jewish National Fund certificates for Mother's Day.
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