THE ORIGINS OF MOTHER’S DAY

Cynics claim that Mother’s Day is merely a creation of greeting card companies exploiting the world’s most important people to make a quick buck. These cynics are wrong. Here’s how the holiday originated.

Ancient Origins

Mother’s Day has its roots in ancient celebrations honoring goddesses—goddesses who, by the way, never cooked, cleaned, changed diapers, wiped noses, or made sure their kids’ homework was done. The ancient Greeks honored the mother of the gods, Rhea, with a celebration in her honor. Cybele was the Roman equivalent of Rhea, and the Romans celebrated accordingly. The Celts celebrated the goddess Brigid with a spring festival. The ancient Egyptians held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis, referred to as the mother of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt.

European Celebrations

It took a while for world civilizations to recognize that mortal mothers should be treated like goddesses and deserved to have celebrations in their honor. Early European Christians celebrated Mother Church, the church in which they were baptized, on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In the 1600s, England turned the celebration into a day honoring real mothers. The day became a one-day reprieve from the penance and fasting of Lent and allowed for a family feast with mother as the guest of honor. In addition to visits from far away relatives, mothers were presented with cakes and flowers.

The First American Mother’s Day

Mothering Day did not make the trip with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and the tradition remained uniquely Old World until 1870 when Julia Ward Howe, distraught over the number of sons killed during the Civil War, called for mothers to unite and protest what she considered unnecessary slaughter. She called for an International Mother’s Day to celebrate mothers and promote peace. By 1873, 18 cities celebrated Howe’s Mother’s Day, but once Howe’s funding for the holiday stopped so did Mother’s Day. Although an initial failure, Howe’s Mother’s Day inspired Anna Jarvis, who petitioned the church where her recently passed-away mother taught Sunday school for 20 years to reinstate the Holiday. Her petition succeeded and on May 10, 1908, the Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, and a church in Philadelphia held their first official Mother’s Day.

An Official Day for Mothers

Although Nebraska senator Elmer Burkett’s proposal to make Mother’s Day a national holiday in 1908 was voted down (by ungrateful politicians who should care more about their moms, no doubt), 46 states held Mother’s Day services by 1909. Anna Jarvis became a full-time promoter of Mother’s Day and petitioned governments, church groups, businesses, and prominent religious groups to support the holiday. In 1912, West Virginia became the first state to make it an official holiday, and in 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day an official day of observance in the United States on the second Sunday in May, a tradition that continues to breakfasts in bed today.

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