Although every day should be Mother's Day, we make sure that on the second Sunday in May, mothers are feted more than at any other time of the year. Cards, gifts, and flowers are sent en masse. I believe it is the #1 day for both dining out, as well as for phone conversations. All this would have infuriated Anna Jarvis, who is officially credited with having begun Mother's Day. She saw it as a day to honor mothers in an intimate setting and manner. All the commercialism around it is something she felt cheapened the holiday, although she was quite naive to not have known that any special occasion would eventually produce these results.

Origins of Honoring Mothers

The tradition of honoring mothers, however, is a revival of a practice that dates back to the Greek empire. The ancient Greeks dedicated their annual spring festival to Rhea, the wife of Cronus and mother of various deities. The Romans called this event the Hilaria, by making offerings in the temple of Cybele, the mother of the deities (same mother) on the Ides of March. Early Christians celebrated the festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ. They adorned the churches with flowers, jewels, rich metals, and expensive gifts. In England, an ecclesiastical order decreed this day as Mothering Sunday, expanding the holiday to include all mothers. Besides attending church services in honor of the Virgin Mary, children went 'a-mothering,' returning home from the cities with gifts, flowers, and special cakes. England was one of the first countries to set aside a day to recognize mothers.

Although many of the customs and beliefs of England were transferred over to this Anglo country, this was one of them that would not be celebrated nationally in America until the 1900's, although it did exist to some extent in some small pockets.

America & Early Attempts at Mother's Day.

In the United States, Julia Ward Howe suggested the idea of Mother's Day in 1872. Howe, who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, saw Mother's Day as being dedicated to peace.

In addition, on May 13, 1877, the second Sunday of the month, Juliet Calhoun Blakeley stepped into the pulpit of the Methodist-Episcopal Church and completed the sermon for the Reverend Myron Daughterty. Allegedly, Daughterty was distraught because an anti-temperance group had forced his son to spend the night in a saloon. Proud of their mother's achievement, Charles and Moses Blakeley encouraged others to pay tribute to their mothers. In the 1880's the Albion Methodist church began celebrating Mother's Day in Blakeley's honor.

Mary Towles Sasseen, a Kentucky schoolteacher, began Mother's Day celebrations as early as 1887. In 1904, Frank Hering of South Bend, Indiana began efforts to have a day set aside for the observance of Mother's Day.

Anna M. Jarvis-the Founder of America's Mother's Day

No official Mother's Day existed until the twentieth century, when Anna M. Jarvis, a Philadelphia schoolteacher, began organizing a national movement for the establishment of such a day. This was done in honor of a mother to whom she was devoted.

Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis

That mother, Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis , organized a series of Mothers' Day Work Clubs in Webster, Grafton, Fetterman, Pruntytown, and Philippi, (West Virginia) to improve health and sanitary conditions, before the beginning of the Civil War..

During the Civil War, Anna Jarvis urged the Mothers' Day Work Clubs to declare their neutrality and to aid both Union and Confederate soldiers. The clubs treated the wounded and regularly fed and clothed soldiers stationed in the area. Her hard work was all the more touching while considering the personal losses she was going through herself. Four of her children died during the war, and eight of her twelve children in all died before reaching adulthood.

Near the end of the war, the Jarvis family moved to the larger town of Grafton, West Virginia. Naturally, as West Virginians fought on both sides during the war (the state, incorporated into the Union in 1864, was part of Virginia before the war), there was great tension when the soldiers returned home. In the summer of 1865, Anna Jarvis organized a Mothers' Friendship Day at the courthouse in Pruntytown to bring together soldiers and neighbors of all political beliefs. The event was a surprising success of friendship and peace. Mothers' Friendship Day became an annual event for several years.

Turning Grief Into a Holiday

When Mrs. Jarvis died on May 9, 1905, her daughter Anna was determined to honor her. Unmarried and alone with her blind sister Elsinore, Anna was devastated by the loss of her mother. She also felt that in this hard-working, industrialized nation of the turn-of-the-century, adult children had become negligent in the treatment of their parents. Daughter Anna led a small tribute to her mother at Andrews Methodist Church on May 12, 1907, and dedicated her life to establishing a nationally recognized Mother's Day. Receiving advice and financial assistance from John Wanamaker, she wrote countless letters to people from all walks of life, including congressmen, asking them to set aside a day to honor mothers. She asked the minister at her church to give a sermon in her mother's memory. At Anna's request, on Sunday, 10 May 1908, the minister of the Andrews Methodist Church (the church in which her mother had attended and taught Sunday School) in Grafton, West Virginia gave a Mother's Day observance, honoring Mrs. Jarvis' memory, the church bell ringing 72 times in honor of each year of Mrs. Jarvis' life. Daughter Anna handed out white carnations (her mother's favorite flower) to all who attended. On the same Sunday in Philadelphia, a minister honored Mrs. Jarvis and all mothers with a special Mother's Day service at Wanamaker Store Auditorium in Philadelphia. In 1910, the Governor of West Virginia proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day; and a year later, every state celebrated it, as well as countries in South America, Asia, and Africa.

Process of State Holiday to Federal Holiday

The Mother's Day International Association was incorporated on December 12, 1912, for the purpose of promoting the day, and its observance. In recognition of Jarvis' efforts, she went to Zurich as a delegate to the World's Sunday School Convention.

The House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution in May 1913 that all officials of the federal government (including the president, the cabinet, and the House) to wear white carnations on Mother's Day.

On May 7, 1914 Senator Heflin of Alabama and Senator Sheppard of Texas sponsored a bill recommending President Wilson to designate the second Sunday in May as the official day for expressing love and reverence for all mothers of the country. President Wilson signed the resolution and the first established Mother's Day was May 8, 1914.

At first, Americans observed Mother's Day by attending the churches of their baptisms and by visiting or writing letters to their mothers (not unlike the 'a-Mothering' in England centuries past). Gradually, other sentiments were added, such as giving presents and candy, mailing cards, and sending flowers.