Happy Mothers Day!
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Yeah, I know it’s late, but I wanted to wish all you stay at home Mom’s a happy Mothers Day! Stay at home Mom’s, as well as all Mom’s really, need a little break from staying at home and keeping the home fires lit.
So for this Mothers Day, I’ve decided on a little history lesson.
How Mother’s Day Started In The Ancient Times
The practice of honoring of motherhood is rooted in antiquity, and past traditional often had strong symbolic and religious overtones. Adoration was bestowed upon female deities or the Church. It has only been the last several centuries that honoring motherhood has become popular for the individual women.
One of the earliest recorded instances of honoring mothers was in ancient Egypt, where people held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis. She was thought of as the mother of the Pharaohs.
In ancient Greece it was the Goddess Rhea who was thought to be the mother to the major deities. The Goddess Rhea was celebrated with a festival that took place around the time of the vernal equinox.
In ancient Rome and Asia Minor the Phrygian goddess Cybele, or Magna Mater (great mother), who stems from Rhea, was honored with a celebration between March 15-22 each year.
Mother’s Day In the Modern Ages
In the 1600s, a church decree in England broadened the celebration of Lent (which celebrated the place where they were baptized, their home Church) to include humanly mothers, giving this day the name “Mothering Day.”
For this day, servants and trade workers were allowed to travel to their hometowns to visit family where their Mother was the guest of honor. The Mom’s were given delicacies such as cakes and flowers and special gifts. They also received a visit from their beloved and distant children. (I wonder if the Children back then called their Mom’s?)
The first North American Mother’s Day was started by a lady named Julia Ward Howe in 1870. Julia Howe was so distraught by the death and carnage that she saw during the Civil War that she called on mother’s to come together and protest what she saw as the futility of their sons killing the sons of other mothers. She called for an international Mother’s Day celebrating peace and motherhood.
In 1885 a lady by the name of Mary Towles Sasseen wrote stories and poems for students to recite on her mother’s birthday. (Mary Towles was a school teacher in Henderson Kentucky) She called the April 20th observance, “Mother’s Day Celebration,” and invited the mothers of the students to attend.
To reunite families that had been divided between the Union and Confederate sides of the Civil War, a group led by Anna Reeves Jarvis held a Mother’s Friendship Day, an adaptation of Julia Howe’s holiday. After Anna R. Jarvis died, her daughter Anna Marie Jarvis campaigned for the creation of an official Mother’s Day in remembrance of her mother and in honor of peace. Her request was honored, and on May 10, 1908, the first official Mother’s Day celebration took place at Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, and a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
By 1909, parts of Canada and Mexico and 46 states were holding Mother’s Day services. Anna Jarvis quit working and devoted herself full time to the creation of Mother’s Day, endlessly petitioning state governments, business leaders, and other institutions and organizations. She finally convinced the World’s Sunday School Association to back her, a key influence over congress. In 1912, West Virginia became the first state to officially recognize Mother’s Day, and in 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed it into national observance, declaring the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
So there you have it. A brief history of Mothers Day and how it came about. Now we need a “stay at home Mom day!”
