Mother's Day - USA History
Mother's Day - a day of peace
In the United States, Mother's Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe
(famous for writing the words to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic").
She suggested shortly after the American civil war that there should
be a day of peace and rememberance and that the best people to be at
the centre of such a day were the nation's Mothers.
Mother's Day - The First Formal Celebration
It was a woman who was never actually a mother herself who led the campaign
for national recognition of Mother's Day in the USA.
Mother's Day can be
attributed to Anna Jarvis who organised the first formal program as a tribute
to her deceased Mother, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis. On May 9th, 1908, the third
anniversary of her mother's death, Miss Jarvis and the Andrews Methodist
Episcopal Church in Grafton and Philadelphia held a service with a general
observance to honour all mothers.
Jarvis' mother had tried to establish Mother's Friendship Day
as a way of dealing with the aftermath of the Civil War.
Anna Jarvis began a campaign to create a national holiday honoring mothers.
She and her supporters wrote to ministers, businessmen and politicians,
and they were successful in their efforts.
Mother's Day - A National Holiday
In 1910, West Virginia became the first state to recognize the new holiday.
The nation followed in 1914 when President Wilson declared the second Sunday
in May to be Mother's Day.
In President Wilson's proclamation, he ordered that the flag be displayed on all government
buildings in the U.S. and foreign possessions. Later Mr. Heflin, co-author of
the resolution said: "The flag was never used in a more beautiful and sacred
cause than when flying above that tender, gentle army, the mothers of
America."
Mother's Day Carnations
Jarvis used white carnations as a symbol for mothers,
because carnations represented sweetness, purity and the endurance of mother love.
(Today, white carnations represent a mother who has died, while red carnations represent
a living mother.)
Unfortunately, Jarvis became bitter over the commercialization of the holiday. She
filed a lawsuit to stop a 1923 Mother's Day event and was even arrested for disturbing
the peace at a mother's convention where white carnations were being sold.
Jarvis never married and never had children. She died in 1948.
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Mother's Day Links
All about Mother's Day
Mother's Day Traditions
Mother's Day History(1)
Mother's Day History(2)
Mothering Sunday History
USA history
First Mother's Day Card
Mother's Day Cards
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