Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day

In America, setting aside a special day to remember and honor mothers began around 1870.

Mother’s Day First Celebrated on June 2nd

About five years after the Civil War ended, Julia Ward Howe wanted a day set aside to celebrate mothers and peace.

Mother’s Day was first celebrated on June 2nd. Eighteen American cities celebrated Mother’s Day in 1873, but it didn’t become an annual celebration.

Women’s Group in West   Virginia

Anna Reeves Jarvis took Julia’s idea and began a women’s group. Anna wanted to gather families and friends who had been separated by the Civil War, so she and her friends started what they called Mother’s Friendship Day.

Mother’s Day Becomes a Tradtion

After Anna died, her daughter, Anna M. Jarvis, wanted to set aside a day to honor her mother. She asked the church where her mother had taught Sunday School for twenty years to hold a Mother’s Day celebration. The church, Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, along with a church in Philadelphia, celebrated the Mother’s Day on May 10, 1908. Honoring mothers on a special day becomes a tradition.

National Holiday

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson decided that Mother’s Day would be held on the second Sunday in May.

Today, many children draw their mother a picture or give them something they made on Mother’s Day. Speaking from experience, moms love these precious gifts!

– Sandra Merville Hart

Sources:

Greif, Martin. The Holiday Book: America’s Festivals and Celebrations. The Main   Street Press, 1978.

“Mother’s Day History.” Mothers Day Central. 19 March 2013. http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/about-mothersday/history/.

 

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