Mother's Day is only a week away (May 13th). Is there something special you do, or have planned? Maybe flowers or a plant? Maybe a nice dinner? You know that we celebrate our Mother's on this day, but do you know why or how it all started?
Mother's day is now celebrated in 40+ countries worldwide in honor or mothers and motherhood. The actual date varies by country, but is celebrated annually. The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Her campaign to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother's Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her mother by continuing the work she started and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world"
In 1908, the U.S. Congress rejected a proposal to make Mother's Day an official holiday, joking that they would also have to proclaim a "Mothers-in-Laws Day". However, owing to the efforts of Anna Jarvis, by 1911 all of the U.S. states observed the holiday with some of them officially recognizing Mother's Day as a local holiday (the first being Jarvis' home state of West Virginia in 1910). In 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers.
Written by Pat Young of PatsPassionQuilteds, Quiltsy Team member since May 2011.
1 comment:
Thank you Pat, very interesting.
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