Mother's Day Origins

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The origins of Mothers Day begin with the days of the ancient Greeks. Rhea was the mother of Zeus, the father of the Greek pantheons, and the ancient Greeks paid tribute to her every spring. Ancient Rome celebrated a festival to Cybele the mother goddess. In the 17th century in England they celebrated 'mothering Sunday' on the fourth Sunday in Lent, a holiday which is still celebrated today.

In 1872 in the United States Julia Ward Howe suggested a holiday to celebrate motherhood. An interesting fact is that Julia Ward how is the author of the Battle Hymn of the Old Republic.

According to most historians Anna Jarvis is credited with starting Mothers Day. Anna Jarvis mother wrote the Mothers Day Proclamation and strived to establish the holiday as a day of peace and reconciliation after the civil war. When her mother died in 1905 Anna Jarvis took up the cause. In1907 the first celebration was held in West Virginia. The ceremony inspired Anna to campaign for wider recognition of the holiday. In1910 West Virginia became the first state to recognize mothers day as a holiday. The following year almost every state had a similar ceremony, and in 1914 it became a National Holiday. President Woodrow Wilson established the holiday as the second Sunday in May.

As the holiday increased in popularity commercialism inevitably crept in. This was more than Anna Jarvis could bear and she began to campaign against the holiday. She was even arrested for disturbing the peace at one of her protests. She made this her life's mission and never had a family herself. When she was 84 years old she gave an interview to a reporter and said she wished she had never started the holiday.

Mother's Day