The history of Mother's Day dates back in the 1600s when the early Christians in England celebrated a day to honor Mother Mary. By virtue of a religious order, the scope broadened to include all mothers and particularly honored the mothers of England. It was named as “Mothering Sunday.” It was every fourth Sunday of Lent, the forty-day period leading up to Easter. The celebration can be traced back in spring in Ancient Greece honoring Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.
During those times, most of England’s poor served as servants to affluent families and lived at the houses of their employers as these jobs were far from their homes. They were given a day off and told to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A cake called “mothering cake” was brought, offering fun and gaiety.
The spread of Christianity then changed the celebration to give accolade to the Mother Church, which then conflated with the Mothering Sunday, so people began honoring the mothers and the church as well. However, with transition and lack of time, those English settlers or colonists who ensconced themselves in America put an end to this tradition.
In the U.S., the British Day was loosely the inciting cause of Mother’s Day when a social advocate, Julia Ward Howe, appalled by carnage of the Franco-Prussian War and civil wars, tried to egress a manifesto for peace at international peace conferences in Paris and London in the 1870s. She started a one-woman campaign and made an ardent request to womanhood to rise against war. She indited a powerful supplication in different languages and spread it to a great extent, which was then considered to be the original Mother’s Day promulgation. Her idea was Mother’s Day for Peace and mainly to unite women against war. And this was proclaimed in June 2, 1872 and lasted for ten years. She made sure that this was well observed.
It was through Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis’ Mother’s Friendship Day that Howe’s induced her concept into action. But then the realism of this important historical change of course depended in the sense that this was to be the harbinger to the present Mother’s Day celebrations. However, Howe’s noteworthy achievement proved insufficient to get a formal recognition in establishing Mother’s Day when her thrust to work for peace and women’s rights veered in other ways. Howe’s efforts were acknowledged and for her accomplishments a stamp was given in her honor in 1988.
Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis was an Appalachian homemaker who, in 1858, started to organize and gather women to work with her to heal the nation after the war between factions. She, together with these women, assisted in maintaining better sanitary conditions and they worked towards reconciliation between the Union and Confederate neighbors in 1868. She taught women in her Mother’s Friendship Clubs basic nursing and sanitation that she learned from her brother, Dr. James Reeves, at the time when most women dedicated their time strictly for their families and homes.
Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis passed away in May 9th, 1905. It was her daughter, Anna Jarvis, who reached the desired goal to introduce Mother’s Day as we celebrate it today. Two years after her mother died in 1907 that she divulged her intent to commit her life to her mother’s cause and laid the groundwork for Mother’s Day to honor all mothers whether living or dead, with her friends supporting her crusade. Anna felt children oftentimes failed to pay gratitude to their mother enough and hoped that this day would heighten respect for parents and would draw families together.
She began an all-out campaign to exhort businessmen, politicians and ministers in proclaiming a national Mother’s Day holiday. Anna’s cause proved fruitful. In May 10, 1907, the very first mother’s day was celebrated in honor of the late Mrs. Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis at the Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, which was also the home of the International Mother’s Day Shrine. Another service was held the same day in Philadelphia, more like a homage service than the one conducted in honor of motherhood.
From then on, it has become a habitual patronage and has been far-flung across 45 American states. The first proclamation of Mother’s Day was penned by the governor of West Virginia in 1910. By 1911, every state had its own custom of observing this day. The contagion leaped from the national boundary to Canada, Mexico, South America, Japan, China and Africa. And finally, in December 12, 1912, the Mother’s Day International Association came into existence to encourage and promote the observance.
May 1913, the US House of Representatives, nemine contradicente, adopted a resolution bespeaking the President, Woodrow Wilson, his cabinet, the members of both Houses and all officials of the federal government to wear a white carnation on Mother's Day.
May 7, 1914, a resolution was premised by Representative James T. Heflin of Alabama and Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas making the second Sunday in May be designated as Mother’s Day, and it passed both Houses.
May 9, 1914 was President Wilson’s first official announcement declaring Mother’s Day a national holiday to be celebrated every second Sunday of May each year as an act of showing respect to mothers and to demonstrate the flag to those mothers whose sons died in the war. In his speech below, he called for Americans to afford MOTHERS public expression of profound regard through the celebration of Mother's Day:
"Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said Joint Resolution, do hereby direct the government officials to display the United States flag on all government buildings and do invite the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."
And since then, Mother's Day Proclamation has been a convention of honoring mothers. Celebration varies, though, in days in many places around the world, but whatever day it may be, our mothers are the greatest contribution we have in our lives, so let us make it worth for them if only for day.
I MISS YOU, MOM! WHEREVER YOU MAY BE, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY AND THANK YOU!
During those times, most of England’s poor served as servants to affluent families and lived at the houses of their employers as these jobs were far from their homes. They were given a day off and told to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A cake called “mothering cake” was brought, offering fun and gaiety.
The spread of Christianity then changed the celebration to give accolade to the Mother Church, which then conflated with the Mothering Sunday, so people began honoring the mothers and the church as well. However, with transition and lack of time, those English settlers or colonists who ensconced themselves in America put an end to this tradition.
In the U.S., the British Day was loosely the inciting cause of Mother’s Day when a social advocate, Julia Ward Howe, appalled by carnage of the Franco-Prussian War and civil wars, tried to egress a manifesto for peace at international peace conferences in Paris and London in the 1870s. She started a one-woman campaign and made an ardent request to womanhood to rise against war. She indited a powerful supplication in different languages and spread it to a great extent, which was then considered to be the original Mother’s Day promulgation. Her idea was Mother’s Day for Peace and mainly to unite women against war. And this was proclaimed in June 2, 1872 and lasted for ten years. She made sure that this was well observed.
It was through Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis’ Mother’s Friendship Day that Howe’s induced her concept into action. But then the realism of this important historical change of course depended in the sense that this was to be the harbinger to the present Mother’s Day celebrations. However, Howe’s noteworthy achievement proved insufficient to get a formal recognition in establishing Mother’s Day when her thrust to work for peace and women’s rights veered in other ways. Howe’s efforts were acknowledged and for her accomplishments a stamp was given in her honor in 1988.
Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis was an Appalachian homemaker who, in 1858, started to organize and gather women to work with her to heal the nation after the war between factions. She, together with these women, assisted in maintaining better sanitary conditions and they worked towards reconciliation between the Union and Confederate neighbors in 1868. She taught women in her Mother’s Friendship Clubs basic nursing and sanitation that she learned from her brother, Dr. James Reeves, at the time when most women dedicated their time strictly for their families and homes.
Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis passed away in May 9th, 1905. It was her daughter, Anna Jarvis, who reached the desired goal to introduce Mother’s Day as we celebrate it today. Two years after her mother died in 1907 that she divulged her intent to commit her life to her mother’s cause and laid the groundwork for Mother’s Day to honor all mothers whether living or dead, with her friends supporting her crusade. Anna felt children oftentimes failed to pay gratitude to their mother enough and hoped that this day would heighten respect for parents and would draw families together.
She began an all-out campaign to exhort businessmen, politicians and ministers in proclaiming a national Mother’s Day holiday. Anna’s cause proved fruitful. In May 10, 1907, the very first mother’s day was celebrated in honor of the late Mrs. Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis at the Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, which was also the home of the International Mother’s Day Shrine. Another service was held the same day in Philadelphia, more like a homage service than the one conducted in honor of motherhood.
From then on, it has become a habitual patronage and has been far-flung across 45 American states. The first proclamation of Mother’s Day was penned by the governor of West Virginia in 1910. By 1911, every state had its own custom of observing this day. The contagion leaped from the national boundary to Canada, Mexico, South America, Japan, China and Africa. And finally, in December 12, 1912, the Mother’s Day International Association came into existence to encourage and promote the observance.
May 1913, the US House of Representatives, nemine contradicente, adopted a resolution bespeaking the President, Woodrow Wilson, his cabinet, the members of both Houses and all officials of the federal government to wear a white carnation on Mother's Day.
May 7, 1914, a resolution was premised by Representative James T. Heflin of Alabama and Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas making the second Sunday in May be designated as Mother’s Day, and it passed both Houses.
May 9, 1914 was President Wilson’s first official announcement declaring Mother’s Day a national holiday to be celebrated every second Sunday of May each year as an act of showing respect to mothers and to demonstrate the flag to those mothers whose sons died in the war. In his speech below, he called for Americans to afford MOTHERS public expression of profound regard through the celebration of Mother's Day:
"Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said Joint Resolution, do hereby direct the government officials to display the United States flag on all government buildings and do invite the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."
And since then, Mother's Day Proclamation has been a convention of honoring mothers. Celebration varies, though, in days in many places around the world, but whatever day it may be, our mothers are the greatest contribution we have in our lives, so let us make it worth for them if only for day.
I MISS YOU, MOM! WHEREVER YOU MAY BE, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY AND THANK YOU!
