The history of mothers Day
By jess368
@jess368 (3368)
United States
April 6, 2008 11:22am CST
For those of you who dont celebrate certain holidays because we think its just a scam to make money...
Believe it or not, Mother's Day is not a Hallmark-conceived holiday. Its roots actually trace back to Ancient Greece. Rhea, who was declared the Mother of the gods (Metros Theon) and men of Olympus, was honored during Spring Festivals. In third century B.C., Romans also paid tribute to their Mother goddess, Cybele.
However, you have to leap forward nearly two millenniums to find any further evidence of recognition. In the 17th century, England created 'Mothering Sunday,' which was celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In those days, servants generally resided with their employers, but were ordered to return home that day to honor their mothers. Eventually, the holiday was expanded to include all mothers.
Here in the United States, Anna Jarvis of Grafton, West Virginia is credited with the start of Mother's Day. In 1908, she convinced her church to celebrate Mother's Day on the anniversary of her mother's death on May 10th. She took it a step further by initiating a letter-writing campaign to religious, business, and political leaders, pushing for a national Mother's Day. The letters paid off, and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother's Day a national holiday, to be celebrated on the second Sunday in May.
Today, Mother's Day is considered to be the highest single-day volume of telephone call traffic. In addition, Mother's Day greeting cards represent the third highest card-sending holiday in America, behind Christmas and Valentine's Day.
Mother's Day Celebrated second Sunday in May
5 people like this
10 responses
@georgette1 (184)
• United States
6 Apr 08
thank you for sharing this with us because i never knew how mothers day started and now I do. also I don't know how many countries celebrate in may because i know that in lebanon they celebrate on the 21st of march the first day of spring. I think that mothers day is a very important holliday because mothers trully deserve to be remembered.
1 person likes this
@jewelenterprises (1996)
• Australia
7 Apr 08
Thank you for sharing that with us Jess.
I really like hearing about where some of our traditions originally came from and that is one that I haven't heard before. I'm not sure when it became official here in Australia... quite possibly around the same time.
@wickedangel (1636)
• Dominican Republic
6 Apr 08
That is interesting, thanks for sharing that with us. I must admit I always thought Mother's Day went back in history (Druids) and was a pagan festival to celebrate motherhood as well as rebirth etc., I hadn't realised that it had been 'reinvented' in the 17th Century and that originally it started in Greece. It's a shame though that these wonderful celebratory days aren't on the same day throughout the world. When I was living in Spain Mother's Day was a different date to the UK one and now I see that the USA one is different again. Perhpas they could standardise the date and then we would know when it was!
Again, thanks for the information, very interesting and I've rated you :)
1 person likes this
@creative_king (55)
• India
6 Apr 08
thanks for sharing it
i will now look towards mothers day seriously
1 person likes this
@sunshinelady (7609)
• United States
7 Apr 08
I knew that Anna Jarvis of Grafton was responsible for Mothers Day becoming a national holiday. I didn't know about the beginning part of your discussion. It is very interesting. Thanks for this informative post. I always let my Mom know that she is appreciated and loved on this day especially but also everyday of the year.
@vivithunder77 (73)
• India
7 Apr 08
thank you for the sharing a great information which i was searching a solution. if you mind can you post discussions on other day too.
@Deea48 (1166)
• United States
7 Apr 08
Thanks for sharing this info, very interesting. Here in Minnesota, they are trying to change the law for fishing opener. A while back they decided to have it on the same weekend as Mothers day. Needless to say, here in MN there have been some unhappy mothers. Instead of paying to their mothers many son's and I suppose some daughters as well are running off too fishing opener and neglecting Moms day. So I for one hope the law passes and they move fishing opener to another day. Again thanks for the info, nice to know how some of these Holidays and traditions start. My mom has passed, I miss spending specail time with mom, on Mothers day.