Department of Youth and Women’s Affairs (DYWA) kicks off the Mother’s Day weekend with a ‘night at the movies under the stars’ set to begin this evening, as American Samoa joins the rest of the nation is honoring our mothers this Sunday.

Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 8, 1914, designated the second Sunday in May each year as “Mother’s Day”.

Instead of the annual Mother’s Day church service, held on the Sunday afternoon of Mother’s Day, this year DYWA will host a movie night, set to begin at 6p.m. and continue till 10:30p.m. today at Lyons Park field across from ANZ Amerika Samoa Bank.

DYWA deputy director Tapumanaia Galu Satele Jr., said the idea for this change is to focus on giving Sunday to Church and Family for each mother on Mother’s Day.

“Each year we have held a Sunday Service but the participation and attendance has diminished each year as more and more churches and families plan to spend time spoiling moms across the island,” he said yesterday. “It would seem like the most ideal thing to do is to preserve Sunday for churches and families to celebrate together.”

So DYWA came up with an activity that he says the whole family can enjoy together where people can come to the park with their mats, blankets and snacks and watch a movie together out in the open. (Free chips and drinks are also being provided by DYWA).

“It should be a fun evening. Bring the families out [to]night and enjoy this great family activity and share an evening with mom watching a great family movie under the stars,” he said, adding that DYWA will also present the ‘Winners of the youth Essay Contest”.

The contest has the youths “writing an essay telling us why their Mothers are special or what have their Mothers done for them that has significantly impacted their lives,” he said, and noted that this is a DYWA sponsored contest.

Meanwhile, traffic at the Laufou Shopping Center area is expected to be bumper to bumper tomorrow as residents hit the road for final shopping before Mother’s Day, which will be filled with church services territory-wide.

Special church programs performed by mothers and for mothers will highlight the church services. Performances will range from skits, to singing, and acting out plays from the Bible.

As residents of American Samoa prepare for Sunday’s special day, Department of Public Safety has called on motorists to be careful in areas where there is a lot of pedestrian traffic, such as the Laufou Shopping Center, as families do their last minute shopping.

Police also plan to beef up road patrol to ensure a safe Mother’s Day weekend in American Samoa.

Similar to previous Mother’s Days, local florists have been busy since early this week with pre orders of flower ula, Hawaiian Haku and flower bouquets. Making the week even busier for local florists is that this week also included Nurses Appreciation week.

Reports from two florists reached by phone, say that customers are now used to making it a habit to place their orders in advance. They said a lot of customers started placing orders as early as Monday this week.

Stores are hoping to pick up more customers today and tomorrow for Mother’s Day purchases, while the food stores are ready for the push for Mother’s Day to’ona’i, with the high demand for the usual food items, such as taro, bananas, chicken, lamb flaps, fish, fasi-povi and other beef items.

A handful of local fishermen, who go out fishing on a daily basis, told Samoa News that they are hoping for good fishing this week before Mother’s Day, so they don’t have to buy fish from stores, which are sometimes very expensive.

There are restaurants offering specials for Mother’s Day brunch — it’s Mama’s day off — no clean up, no organizing and no obligations — except to look and feel beautiful and be appreciated and loved.

Reports from the Pago Pago International Airport states that flights on the inter Samoa route have been very busy, with only Polynesian Airlines flying at this point. Inter Island Airways is not operating due to mechanical problems with its aircraft.

Samoa News staff and management wishes a Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers, as well as the special people who serve in the role of mothers in our community.