Google marks Mother's Day with a heart-warming doodle

Mother's Day is celebrated around the globe to honour mothers and to celebrate the contribution of maternal figures to society. Most countries celebrate the day on the second Sunday of May, while others observe Mother's Day on different days, with 8th March and 21st March as the other popular dates.

The origins of Mother's Day as the world knows it can be traced back to the United States. In 1908 Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in America. She then began a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States. Her attempts bore fruit in 1914, and since then the day is celebrated every year.

As of date, almost the entire world celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May. This includes Canada, Australia, most parts of Europe, India & other parts of Asia, Brazil & other parts of South America, as well as many countries in Africa.

While commercialization of Mother's Day has disappointed many, it's hardly a new phenomenon, with Jarvis herself becoming an opponent of the holiday due to the rampant commercialization as early as the 1920s.

The animated Google doodle opens with a mother figure in focus. Two kids pop into focus from behind a door and proceed to give their mother a tight hug. The characters then line up to form letters in the Google logo.

Archaeologist Howard Carter's Google doodle: 10 things to know

Doodles from Google are not something new, but the homage, these doodles pay to yesteryear artists, denotes a huge honour, and hence are of utmost importance. People, who have been forgotten, are remembered once again through these doodles.

Today's Google doodle pays homage to an English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter, who is noted as a discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Here are the top 10 things that you must know about the doodle and the man behind it - Howard Carter.

1. With a view to mark the 138th birth anniversary of Howard Carter, Google today replaced its usual Google logo with a doodle that includes a wide array of Egyptian treasures that cover the term "Google" and make it barely visible.

2. Howard's important contribution to his field of archaeology was the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, who was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty.

3. Howard Carter was born on May 9, 1874 in London, and at the age of 17, he was sent out by the Egypt Exploration Fund to help Percy Newberry in the excavation and recording of Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan.

4. Even at the young age he was innovative in improving the methods of copying tomb decoration.

5. In 1899, Howard was appointed the first chief inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities Service (EAS). Cartor monitored scores of excavations at Thebes (now known as Luxor).

6. On 4 November 1922, Carter's excavation group found the steps leading to Tutankhamun's tomb, by far the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings.

7. Following his discovery, Howard Carter retired from archaeology and became a part-time agent for museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

8. Carter has been portrayed by many actors in films and TV shows including John Cleese, Robin Ellis and Pip Torrens.

9. He has appeared as a character in many books. Carter appears as a character throughout most of the Amelia Peabody series of books by 'Elizabeth Peters'. James Patterson and Martin Dugard's "The Murder of King Tut" talks about Carter's search for King Tut's tomb.

10. He died of lymphoma in Kensington, London, on March 2, 1939 at the age of 64. He was buried in the Putney Vale Cemetery in London., and on his gravestone is written: "May your spirit live, May you spend millions of years, You who love Thebes, Sitting with your face to the north wind, Your eyes beholding happiness" and "O night, spread thy wings over me as the imperishable stars".