The Greeks and Romans had festivals to honor their mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele. The early Christians developed the concept of “Mothering Sunday”. On the fourth Sunday of Lent, mothers and their families were encouraged to return to their “mother church” for a special service. It became more secular as a tradition of giving flowers and small gifts to your mother evolved. Much later, in America, Anna Reeves Jarvis had 13 children, only 4 lived to adulthood. In the years before the Civil War, she created “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to teach child care to other poor mothers so they could keep their children alive. Jarvis was a peace activist. After the Civil War, she hoped to reconcile the North and the South by encouraging gatherings of mothers and Civil War veterans from the opposing sides. The first of these Mother’s Friendship Days was held in 1868. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe (“The Battle Hymn of the Republic”) issued a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” calling for world peace. She wanted people to celebrate a Mother’s Peace Day annually. These ideas did not really catch on. When Ann Reeves Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter Anna took up the cause. Ironically, Anna never married or had children. In 1907, she organized a service at a church in Grafton, West Virginia. She envisioned the holiday as a simple one where mothers would wear a white carnation and go to church with their children. The next year, she got financial backing from a department store owner named John Wanamaker. This would come back to haunt her. Jarvis began a lobbying campaign for a national holiday. All those holidays honoring men, how ‘bout one for women? By 1911, all states had Mother’s Day holidays. On May 9, 1914, Pres. Wilson proclaimed the first national Mother’s Day and set it on the second Sunday of May. Soon, florists, confectioners, and other businesses latched on to the marketing potential of the holiday. Jarvis became very offended with the commercialization of the holiday and worked to get her holiday removed from the calendar! She died penniless after spending most of her money on lawsuits against the use of the term “Mother’s Day” by businesses.
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/mothers-day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day
https://www.rd.com/list/history-of-mothers-day/
0 Comments