The Origin of Mother's Day

The Origin of Mother's Day
The Advice with Kevin Dewayne Hughes
Mother’s Day began as a women’s movement to better the lives of Americans. Its forgotten origins spring from two lifelong activists who championed efforts toward a better society.
Mother’s Day is primarily attributed to three women: Ann Reeves Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, and Ann’s daughter, Anna M. Jarvis.
Ann Reeves "Mother" Jarvis
Ann Reeves Jarvis was a young Appalachian homemaker who taught Sunday school and was better known as "Mother Jarvis." In the mid-1800s, she organized “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” in West Virginia to combat unsanitary living conditions. Ann Reeves Jarvis was especially concerned about the high infant mortality rates and wanted to educate mothers.
During the American Civil War, Mother Jarvis organized women’s brigades to encourage women to help without regard for which side their husbands had chosen. After the war, she proposed a Mothers’ Friendship Day to promote peace between Union and Confederate families.
Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe was a poet and reformer. During the Civil War, she volunteered for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, helping them to provide hygienic environments for hospitals and to ensure sanitary conditions during the care of sick and wounded soldiers. In 1861, she authored the famous Civil War anthem, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which was first published in February 1862.
Around 1870, she called for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” dedicated to the celebration of peace and the eradication of war. As expressed in what is called her “Mother’s Day Proclamation", Howe felt that mothers should gather to prevent the cruelty of war and the waste of life since mothers of mankind alone bear and know the cost. Although that was her sentiment, father's, brothers, sisters, daughters, and sons bear and know the cost too. It is also the soldier who dies that bears the ultimate cost having paid with their own life.
Howe’s version of Mother’s Day was held in Boston and other locations for about 30 years, but didn't last long after World War I.
Anne M. Jarvis
After her mother, died in 1905, Miss Anna Jarvis wished to memorialize her mother’s life and started campaigning for a national day to honor all mothers, saying “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.”
Anna’s ideas were less about public service and more about simply honoring the role of motherhood and the sacrifices made in the home. She contacted public figures and various civic organizations with telegrams, letters, and in-person discussions. She wrote, printed, and distributed booklets about her idea.
In May of 1907, Anna memorialized her mother’s lifelong activism with a memorial service held at the Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna’s mother had taught. The following year, on May 10, a Mother’s Day service was held at that same church to acknowledge all mothers. Thus was born the idea that the second Sunday in May, be set aside to honor every mother, whether living or deceased.
The mayor of Philadelphia soon declared a local Mother’s Day. It didn't take long for Washing DC to nationalize Mother's Day. Woodrow Wilson signed Mother's Day into a National Holiday in 1914.
Mother's Day is celebrated at different times of the year in various countries with unique cultural traditions.
For example: Constance Penswick-Smith, inspired by Anne Jarvis, created the Mothering Sunday Movement in the UK. In 1921 she wrote a book asking for the renewal of the festival. Its wide scale revival was through the influence of American and Canadian soldiers serving abroad during World War II.
Happy Mother's Day to my wife Kimberly and my Mom Diane.
I used an article by Heidi Stonehill as my primary source. See the original article at
www.almanac.com/content/histo...