Storytime Tapestry E-zine

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Welcome to Fascinating Facts and Educational Trivia

A Hartson Dowd Column

May 11, 2008

Fascinating Facts and Tantelizing Trivia:

The History of Mother’s Day

We can only have one mother, patient, kind and true,

No other friend in the entire world will be so true to you;

For all her loving kindness, she asks nothing in return;

If the entire world deserts you, to your mother you can turn.

We can only have one mother; no one else can take her place;

You can’t tell how much you’ll need her, till you miss her loving face.

Be careful how you answer her; choose every word you say,

Remember she’s your mother, tho’ now she’s old and grey.

We can only have one mother, Oh, take her to your heart.

You cannot tell how soon the time, when she and you must part.

Let her know you love her dearly, cheer and comfort her each day.

You can never get another, when she has passed away.

While many people might assume that Mother’s Day is a holiday invented by the fine folk at Hallmark’s Card Company, it’s not so.  The earliest Mother’s Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece, honoring Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.  The Romans called their version of the event the Hilaria, and celebrated the Ides of March by making offerings in the temple of Cybele, the mother of the Gods.  Early Christians celebrated the festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ.

In more recent times, relatively speaking – England in the 1600’s – the celebration was expanded to include all mothers with “Mothering Sunday” being celebrated on the 4^th Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter).  Besides attending church services in honor of the Virgin Mary, servants  were given the day off in homes of the wealthy, they returned home from the cities where they were employed, with gifts, flowers, and special Mothering Day cakes that were important parts of the celebration.

Mother’s Day festivities in the United States date back to 1872 when Julia Ward Howe (her other claim to fame was writing the lyrics for the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”) suggested the day be dedicated to peace.   She began promoting the idea of a “Mother’s Day for Peace” to be celebrated on June 2, honoring peace, motherhood and womanhood.  In 1873, women in 18 cities in America held a Mother’s Day for Peace gathering.  Boston celebrated the Mother’s Day for Peace for 10 years, but the celebrations died when Howe was no longer paying most of the cost for them, although in other sreas the celebration continued for 30 years.  Ms. Howe turned her efforts to working for peace and women’s rights in other ways.   A stamp was issued in honor of Julia Ward Howe in 1988 - - no mention of Mother’s Day though

In 1907, Ana Jarvis, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania school teacher, furthered the cause by beginning a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day.  Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother’s church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother’s Day on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, which happened to be on the 2^nd Sunday of May that year.  By the following year, Mother’s Day was also being celebrated in Philadelphia.

By 1909 Mother's Day services were held in 46 states plus Canada and Mexico.

Not content to rest on her laurels, Ms. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessmen, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother’s Day and in 1912, the Mother’s Day International Association was incorporated for the purpose of promoting the day and its observance.  In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it official by proclaiming Mother’s Day a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2^nd Sunday of May.

It is somewhat ironic that after all her efforts.  Ana Jarvis ended up growing bitter over what she perceived as the corruption of the holiday she created.  She abhorred the commercialization of the holiday and grew so enraged by it that she filed a lawsuit to stop a 1923 Mother’s Day festival and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a war mothers’ convention where women sold white carnations - - Jarvis’ symbol for mothers - - to raise money.

Ann Jarvis’ story is not a happy one.  Things went from bad to worse and she eventually lost everything and everyone that was close to her and she died alone in a sanatorium in 1948.  Shortly before her death, Jarvis told a reporter that she was sorry she had ever started Mother’s Day.

Ana may be gone, but Mother’s Day lives on, regardless of whether it meets with her approval.  Many countries throughout the world celebrate Mother’s Day at various times throughout the year, but some countries like Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Mexico and Turkey also celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May.

The Mother Behind Mother’s Day:

·                                 ·                                 The story behind Ana Jarvis’s mother, one Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis, is just as interesting as the story of Mother’s Day itself.  The elder Mrs. Jarvis organized a series of “Mother’s Work Camps” in 1858 in West Virginia to improve health and sanitary conditions during the Civil War.  During the war she declared neutrality for her organizations and regularly aided soldiers in need on both sides of the struggle.   After the Civil War, she worked to establish reconciliation between people who had supported the two sides in the war.  

Hartson Dowd                                                                                                                             hsdowd@telus.net