Mothers Day 2023: Religions around the world celebrate goddesses, importance of nurturing

 

People admire a massive statue of the Hindu goddess Kali in a large neighborhood shrine (pandal) in the New Market Square for the Kali Puja religious festival. In Kolkata, Kali Puja coincides with Diwali, the Festival of Light. Kali, a black incarnation of the Hindu deity Shakti, is the patron god of Kolkata.

Many groups are planning special events or services to celebrate Mother’s Day - a holiday founded in the United States in 1908 at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in West Virginia that became a nationally recognized holiday in 1914. The mid-May date spread around the world, though many countries still maintain their own dates and traditions.

Religions use these days to honor the importance of many kinds of nurturing, from traditional celebrations to events that honor modern parenting, infertility struggles or the pain of losing a child.

Motherhood and nurturing are not celebrated only on particular days, however. Many religions include goddess-centered traditions that embrace many forms of the divine feminine as central to their belief systems.

As a religious studies professor who travels with students around the world to explore different cultures and practices, I have often noticed the interest students have in the variety of goddess traditions we encounter. Here are just a few:

Asian traditions

One of the most well-known goddesses in Hinduism is perhaps the least understood from an outside perspective. Kali is often seen as a terrifying figure, depicted using multiple weapons and dressed in clothing of severed heads and arms.

Yet Kali is also an important mother figure who channels her ferocity into the care and defense of all creation. As a manifestation of the primal force of Shakti, Kali is essentially all aspects of motherhood wrapped up into one, often simultaneously caring, loving and fierce.

A girl dressed like Kali poses for photographs at a Bonalu festival procession in Hyderabad, India, on Aug. 9, 2010. Bonalu is a month-long festival celebrated in Andhra Pradesh state and is dedicated to Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A)

Guan Yin, who goes by many variations of her name, is revered as the goddess of compassion and mercy in several different Eastern traditions. Beginning – interestingly enough – as a male bodhisattva called Avalokiteshvara, the goddess figure was adapted in many different cultures around the world.

Called Kannon in Japan and Quan Am in Vietnam, she is frequently a focal point of temple worship and is also considered the guardian of sailors and a goddess of fertility.

The triple goddess

In Neopaganism, an umbrella term for a diverse group of new religious movements most popular in the United States, Australia and Europe, goddess figures also often play a primary role. Neopaganism’s various branches include Wicca and Hellenic reconstructionism, a religion that focuses on the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece.

Jussara Gabriel a Wiccan High priestess blesses the first-degree priestesses during the  the Imbolc, the seasonal sabbat in honor of Brigid, a Celtic goddess of Irish origin, on August 13, 2020 in Jacarepagua, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Because of the pandemic, coven members have taken precautions but do not wear protective masks during rituals. The expression "Perfect love and perfect trust" is used to demonstrate the bonds of unity and trust between them in the face of the risk of contamination.

Of primary importance for many Neopagans is the triple goddess, a figure who encompasses the three aspects of maiden, mother and crone. Sometimes these goddess figures are based on specific ancient deities, such as Persephone, Demeter and Hekate, and sometimes they are worshipped more generally as representations of various phases of life.

More recently, many of these traditions are intentionally expanding to reject ideas of gender essentialism and embrace a range of identities. For some Neopagans, exploring what femininity and masculinity signify in today’s society is an important extension of religious belief and a way to include people who have felt rejected from other religious communities.

Beyond the goddess

Many other religions revere mother figures, even if they are not worshipped or considered goddesses. Khadija, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad and the first convert to Islam, is given the title “the Mother of Believers,” signifying her importance for the development of the religion.

Devotion to Mary, mother of Jesus, has been common throughout the history of Christianity and remains popular today.

A tiny framed image of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus was one of many items for sale at the Queen of Angels Catholic Store in this 2012 photo.

In Judaism, the idea of “Shekinah” has been influential in some feminist thought. Rather than representing a single woman or female figure, Shekinah is seen as the feminine aspect of the divine, a manifestation of God’s wisdom on Earth.

Nurturing and compassion are key concepts in a variety of religions, whether they are represented as specific goddess figures, archetypes of the feminine or new religious developments that embrace shifting ideas about gender.

Alyssa Beall is assistant professor of religious studies, humanities, and philosophy at West Virginia University.

The Conversation is a nonprofit, independent news organization that partners with colleges and universities to publish articles written by academic experts.

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