The story behind Mother’s Day
If you think Mother’s Day was created by florists, jewelers, or the greeting card industry for the purpose of selling their wares, think again. This special day of remembrance is celebrated in countries all over the world. Its roots go back to ancient times, but Mother’s Day is as modern as it is today.
This day has its roots in ancient Egypt, where the goddess Isis was hailed as the mother of the pharaohs. This tradition moved to Greece and Rome. The holiday appeared later in Europe and was celebrated as part of Lent in honor of the “Mother Church”.
Some 500 years ago, a church leader in England extended the celebration to honor true mothers. The name adopted for this event, which is still held during the Slow season, was “Mother’s Day”. Family parties were the order of the day and slow restrictions on celebration were allowed to be set aside. The mothers, as guests of honor, received cakes and gifts from young and old on this special occasion.
Although the early settlers brought with them the English tradition of Mother’s Day, they were unwilling to celebrate secular holidays. It wasn’t until 1870 that what has become the American version of Mother’s Day was proclaimed. The person behind this was Julia Ward Howe. She wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” 12 years earlier and saw an opportunity to enlist mothers in a cause to end future wars and the death of mothers’ children.
By 1873, more than 20 cities had established fewer groups that celebrated the feast of the new Mother every June 2. Howe paid for most of the festivities, and support dwindled when he stopped paying the bills. A West Virginia woman, Anna Reeves Jarvis, believed enough in the concept to unite United and Confederate families in an effort to mend the divide caused by the Civil War. She called it “Mother’s Friendship Day.”
After her mother’s death, Anna M. Jarvis took on the job of establishing an official Mother’s Day in memory of her mother and in honor of peace. On May 10, 1908, the first official Mather Day celebration was held at a church in Grafton, West Virginia and another in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For the next year, churches in 46 states, as well as Canada and Mexico, held Mother’s Day services.
By working tirelessly to gain support from the state, Anna Jarvis was able to convince legislators to recognize Mother’s Day. In 1912, West Virginia became the first state to do so. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed the national observance of the holiday into law and made the second Sunday in May the official date of Mother’s Day.
Anna Jarvis opposed the commercialization of Mother’s Day. In 1923 she sued to stop the event and she was arrested in the 1930s for protesting the promotion of flowers in conjunction with the Mother’s Day movement. Anna herself died poor, blind and childless in 1948, unaware that Florist’s Exchange paid anonymously for her care to the end.