In the Azores and throughout Portugal, including Madeira, December 8th, the Catholic Holiday of The Immaculate Conception (Dia da Imaculada Conceição), was also Mother’s Day, later changed to the first Sunday in May. Here is a wonderful poem by Victor Lima Meirelhes, an outstanding poet, which was included in his book published in 2015 and translated into English.

a Mother’s Day

one day Mom

the fields will be

cultivated

and I won’t be there to see them plowed

and the warm afternoon sun

will curdle with gold

the grasses and the leaves of the trees

and the rivers will be in their

place

flowing into the sea

and

I

will no longer be there

to follow the course

through the rocks and sands

where the fish hide to breed

and

I

won’t see them

my soul transformed

into a shadow

will only wander the tops

of the mountains

where there will be snow and cold

and the wind will roar

like the anguished laughter

of someone who got lost

when he was searching for love and reason

Victor de Lima Meireles

(From the book MATER, 2015, p. 85)

Translated by Diniz Borges

According to Catholic dogma, the Immaculate Conception is the conception of the Virgin Mary without stain (in Latin, macula ) of original sin. The dogma says that, from the first moment of her existence, God preserved the Virgin Mary from the lack of sanctifying grace that afflicts humanity because she was full of divine grace. It also professes that the Virgin Mary lived completely free of sin.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrated on December 8, was defined as a universal feast by Pope Sixtus IV on February 28, 1476.
Pope Pius IX solemnly defined the Immaculate Conception as dogma in his bull Ineffabilis Deus on December 8, 1854. The Catholic Church considers that the dogma is supported by the Bible (for example, Mary is greeted by the Angel Gabriel as “full of grace”) and by the writings of the Church Fathers, such as Irenaeus of Lyon and Ambrose of Milan. Since Jesus became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary, she needed to be completely free of sin to be able to bear her Son.
In his Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus (December 8, 1854), which officially defined the Immaculate Conception as dogma, Pope Pius IX appealed mainly to the statement in Genesis 3:15, where God said: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers,” so, according to this prophecy, a sinless woman would be needed to give birth to the Christ, who would reconcile man with God. The verse “You are all beautiful, my love, there is no stain on you” (in the Vulgate: “Tota pulchra es, amica mea, et macula non est in te”) in the Song of Songs (4:7) is used to defend the Immaculate Conception, other verses include:
“They shall also make an ark of incorruptible wood; its length shall be two cubits and a half, and its breadth a cubit and a half, and its height a cubit and a half.” (Exodus25:10-11) “Can the pure [Jesus] come from an unclean being? Never!” (Job 14:4) ‘So I made an ark of incorruptible wood, and smoothed two stone tablets like the first; and I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.’ (Deuteronomy 10:3) (Deuteronomy 10:3)
Other translations for the word incorruptible (“Setim” in Hebrew) include “acacia”, “indestructible” and “hard” to describe the wood used. Noah used this wood because it was considered durable and “incorruptible.” Mary is considered to be the Ark of the New Covenant (Revelation 11:19) and therefore the New Ark would also be “incorruptible” or “undefiled”.

From: https://www.passofundo.ideau.com.br/noticia/08-de-dezembro-dia-de-nossa-senhora-imaculada-conceicao/