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Mommy, Where Does Mother's Day Come From?

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."
 -Lin Yutang, Chinese Literary Figure

Although it wasn't celebrated in the U.S. until 1908, the earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele.

Much later, during the 17th century, in England there was an annual observance called "Mothering Sunday” in which Christians celebrated with a festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers. On Mothering Sunday, the servants, who generally lived with their employers, were encouraged to return home and honor their mothers. It was traditional for them to bring a special cake along to celebrate the occasion.

Then, in 1908 the Appalachian homemaker Anna Jarvis’s daughter, also by the name of Anna, from Grafton, West Virginia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the anniversary of her mother's death. A memorial service was held there on May 10, 1908 where Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white carnation. The following year Mother’s Day was celebrated in Philadelphia where Jarvis moved.

Jarvis and others began a letter-writing campaign to ministers, businessmen, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother's Day. And in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day a national observance that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.

At first, people observed Mother's Day by attending church, writing letters to their mothers and eventually, by sending cards, presents and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis became furious. She believed that the day's sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In 1923 she filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother's Day festival and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations for a war mother's group. Before her death in 1948, Jarvis is said to have confessed that she regretted ever starting the Mother's Day tradition.

Despite Jarvis's misgivings, Mother's Day has flourished in the United States, becoming immensely popular and widely accepted. In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most prevalent day of the year for dining out, and telephone lines have record their highest traffic, as children everywhere take advantage of this day to honor and appreciate their mothers.

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