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The
History of Mother's Day
Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived and
fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to
mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to
Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans
made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this
festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of
Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and
was called Mothering Sunday.
In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when
Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise
awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she
believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's
Work Day."
Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist,
suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the
Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace,
since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than
anyone else.
In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a
campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that
young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in
which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a
memorial mother's day. There are many days for men, but none for
mothers."
Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and
politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her
campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first
services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in
West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white
carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a
resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear
white carnations on Mother's Day. In 1914 Anna's hard work paid off
when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother's Day as a
national holiday.
At first, people observed Mother's Day by attending church, writing
letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents,
and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with
Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis became enraged. She believed that the day's
sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In
1923 she filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother's Day festival, and was even
arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations
for a war mother's group. Before her death in 1948, Jarvis is said to
have confessed that she regretted ever starting the mother's day
tradition.
Despite Jarvis's misgivings, Mother's Day has flourished in the United
States. In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular
day of the year to dine out, and telephone lines record their highest
traffic, as sons and daughters everywhere take advantage of this day to
honor and to express appreciation of their mothers.
From 123holiday.net
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