The history of Mother’s Day is centuries old and can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians.
Early Christians initially used the day to honor their “Mother Church.” They also celebrated a “Mother’s Festival” during Lent to honor Mary, the mother of Christ.
In England, in the 1600’s, the celebration began to include real Mothers, earning the name Mothering Day. During this Lenten Sunday, servants and trade workers were allowed to travel back to their towns of origin to visit their families and came bearing cakes and flowers for Mother. Mothering Day also provided a one-day reprieve from the fasting and penance of Lent as families enjoyed a sumptuous family feast—Mother was the guest of honor.
English colonists settled in America discontinued the tradition of Mothering Sunday –perhaps due to lack of time. Another possibility, however, is that Mothering Day conflicted with their Puritan ideals.
In 1872, Julia Ward Howe, who penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic, established a landmark in the history of Mother’s Day. Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War that she called on Mother’s to come together and protest the futility of their Sons killing the Sons of other Mothers. She called for an international Mother’s Day celebrating peace and motherhood.
The holiday nearly failed once Howe stopped providing the funding for the majority of these celebrations. Howe had nevertheless planted the seed that would blossom into what we know as Mother’s Day today
Anna M. Jarvis also campaigned for the creation of an official Mother’s Day in remembrance of her mother and in honor of peace. Her request was honored, and on May 10, 1908, the first official Mother’s Day celebration took place at Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia and a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Andrew’s Methodist Church exists to this day, and was incorporated into the International Mother’s Day Shrine in 1962.
In 1908, U.S. Senator from Nebraska, Elmer Burkett, proposed making Mother’s Day a national holiday at the request of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). The proposal was defeated, but by 1909 forty-six states were holding Mother’s Day services as well as parts of Canada and Mexico.
Anna Jarvis quit working and devoted herself entirely to the creation of Mother’s Day, endlessly petitioning state governments, business leaders, women groups, churches and other institutions and organizations. She finally convinced the World’s Sunday School Association, a key influence over state legislators and congress, to back her. In 1912 West Virginia became the first state to officially recognize Mother’s Day, and in 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed it into national observance, declaring the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. |
