The first celebration of mothers took place in the spring in ancient Greece. They paid respects to the goddess “Rhea”, mother of the gods. During the 17th Century, England honored mothers on the fourth Sunday during Lent. In the United States, Julia Ward Howe suggested the idea of Mother’s Day in 1872. Howe who penned the song Battle Hymn of The Republic, saw Mother’s Day as being dedicated to peace. Anna Jarvis is the one credited to officially bringing observance of Mother’s Day, the campaign began as a remembrance of her mother who died in 1905, and who had, in the late 19th Century tried to establish ‘Mother Friendship Days’ as a way for the mothers who lost children to the Civil War to heal the emotional and psychological scarring they had endured. Two years, after the death of Jarvis’ mother, Anna held a cermemony in Grafton, West Virginia to honor her memory. Anna was so moved by the proceedings she formally went on a campaign to officially adopt a holiday devoted to mothers. In 1910, the state of West Virginia was the first state to officially acknowledge Mother’s Day.
A year later, the rest of the states followed suit marking the day, and President Woodrow Wilson had proclaimed Mother’s Day an official holiday on that second Sunday in May. Jarvis’ displeasure and enragement at the idea and conception of Mother’s Day becoming highly commercialized and it wasn’t until 1923 when she filed a law suit to stop a Mother’s Day festival and was subsequently arrested and charged with disturbance of the peace at a war convention where women sold white carnations. Anna Jarvis died in 1948, childless at the age of 84, but in an interview she regretted starting Mother’s Day as quoted by a reporter who interviewed her. Every year since her death, the nursing home she died in her room is filled with cards from people all over the world paying homage to her founding this holiday. Many celebrations are held throughout the world even though they do not fall on the same day. Countries that celebrate Mother’s Day at the same time as the United States are: Australia, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, Denmark, and Finland.
This goes above and beyond the gifts since Mother’s Day in America is very commercialized and people in the past generations since the turn of the 20th Century have forgotten what the meaning of Mother’s Day really is and what it truly stands for. Everyone has their own idea of what Mother’s Day is, but what does it truly mean to them? Everyone has their own idea of celebrating the day devoted to mothers in their own way whether its going out to dinner as a family or doing something special for mom that’s well thought out and planned. Every tradition is different depending on where you came from culturally. Either way you do it celebrating the best of mom and what she does can be the most special and memorable occasion to show Mom your gratitude and appreciation.
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