By Josh Grossman
With appreciative children who send flowers , take mom to brunch, or write a nice greeting card, moms are sure to “feel the love” the second Sunday of May. Mother’s Day has become one of busiest days of the year for businesses and cynics might believe the flower and gift companies conjured up the holiday. Few people, however, know the true roots of the celebration.
The earliest festivals for mothers trace back to the ancient Greeks who annually paid tribute to Rhea, the mother of many deities, as well as to the Romans who paid tribute to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians honored Mary, mother of Christ, on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was named Mothering Sunday. Since it was believed that the Mother Church was a spiritual power that gave life and protected from harm it was customary for people to bring gifts to the church. In Europe during the middle Ages, the fourth Sunday in lent became known as mothering Sunday. Most poor folk were servants who were allowed to return home on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and often brought small gifts, flowers, or a "mothering cake" also known as Simnel Cake.
In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day."
Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day for mothers to rally for peace, believing they bore the loss of human life more harshly than others. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Massachusetts ever year.
In 1907 Anna Jarvis’s daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign in her church in West Virginia to memorialize the life work of her mother by commemorating the anniversary of her mother's death, which happened to be on the 2nd Sunday of May that year. By the following year, Mother's Day was also being celebrated in Philadelphia. Anna lobbied prominent businessmen and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers.
At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flowers, carnations. The white carnation was originally worn to symbolize a mother who has passed away and a red carnation for one who is living. However, many other flowers are now accepted as being significant on Mother's Day. In 1912, the Mother's Day International Association was incorporated for the purpose of promoting the day and its observance. By 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state in the nation. In 1913, the House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for government officials to wear flowers on Mother's Day.
Finally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother's Day as a national holiday with the following pronouncement: "Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said Joint Resolution, do hereby direct the government officials to display the United States flag on all government buildings and do invite the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."
Initially, Mother's Day was observed by attending church, children writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, gifts, and flowers. Believing that the day's sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit, Anna Jarvis became enraged and even filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother's Day festival in 1923. She was arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling flowers for a war mother's group. Before her death in a sanatorium in 1948, Jarvis is said to have confessed that she was sorry for even starting the mother's day tradition.
Many countries throughout the world celebrate Mother's Day at various times of the year. Of course, Mother's Day has flourished in the United States. In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out, make telephone calls, and send flowers . Recently, the internet has proved increasingly popular to celebrate the day as well. Now you can send electronic greeting card (http://www.123greetings.com), send chocolates (http://www.lindt.com) and send flowers (http://www.beyondblossoms.com) all without leaving the house.
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