The second Sunday in May, this year the 11th, is Mother's Day in America. The holiday has some surprising roots in an event from the past, the Civil War.

Julia Ward Howe, the woman who penned the Battle Hymn of the Republic at the beginning of the Civil War, felt that the carnage of the war had left wounds that needed to not only be healed but healed by mothers.

Howe issued a Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870, five years after the war had ended, but the wounds of the war continued. She began her proclamation with, "Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts," and she ended it with the purpose of her proposed event, "To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace."

Different nationalities would have been speaking of the two nations that America had become, North and South. Howe felt the need for this event so deeply that she even proposed that July 4, the celebration of America's birth, be made Mother's Day.

June 2 was the day that was actually chosen. Mother's Day caught on and three years later, groups of women in 18 cities observed the holiday. Observation of the day gradually trickled away and, by the 1880's, even Boston, the last city to hold onto the event, no longer celebrated it. But Howe had inspired another woman so the idea didn't end with her.

Anna Reeves Jarvis was from West Virginia, a state that was created at the beginning of the Civil War when Virginia wanted to side with the South and the state's western mountain regions wanted to side with the North. Jarvis put together a Mother's Friendship Day.

Her daughter, Anna M. Jarvis, continued her mother's efforts after she had died and began soliciting support of a Mother's Day at her local church. More than 400 people attended.Momentum for Mother's Day grew and in 1909, it was celebrated in most states and somewhat in Canada and Mexico. Jarvis worked toward her goal and in 1912, the holiday became official in her home state then two years later, a joint resolution of Congress declared the second Sunday in May to be Mother's Day and President Woodrow Wilson issued the first Presidential Mother's Day proclamation.

Every year, the president issues just such a proclamation. President George W. Bush's 2007 Mother's Day Proclamation included, "The bond between mothers and their children is one defined by love." Jarvis became appalled at the commercialization that became part of the day and tried to fight against it. At that first Mother's Day at her church, white carnations had been passed out because they were her mother's favorite.

Those flowers and flowers in general became part of the symbolism of the day and a popular gift for mothers. She was, of course, unable to stop what she had begun.

Today, Mother's Day is a special event for mothers across America and in many other countries around the world from South America to France to Australia.

---

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Website:
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.12

Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.