The History of
Mothers' Day

Mothers' Day In Ancient Times

The concept of Mother's Day actually dates back thousands of years...
One of the earliest historical records of a society celebrating a Mother deity can be found among the ancient Egyptians, who held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis, who was commonly regarded as the Mother of the pharaoh.

Ancient Romans had their annual spring festival made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele.
While the Greeks dedicated the festival to Rhea, mother of many deities,

Christians celebrated a Mother's Day during a festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ.
Later, in England the holiday was expanded to include all mothers.
It was then called Mothering Sunday.

Mothers' Day In The Late 1800s

The first North American Mother’s Day was conceptualized with Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Despite her having written The Battle Hymn of the Republic 12 years earlier, Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of 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.

Howe proposed converting July 4th into Mother’s Day, in order to dedicate the nation’s anniversary to peace. Eventually, however, June 2nd was designated for the celebration, But observance of this day eventually essentially died out.
Despite the decided failure of her holiday, Howe had nevertheless planted the seed that would blossom into what we know as Mother’s Day today.

Mothers' Day In The Early 1900s

In the early1900s' the celebration of mothers made its way to the United States... all due to a Appalachian woman named Anna Jarvis who organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions of her community. She thought the day would be best advocated by mothers and called the day "Mother's Work Day" .

When Anna Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter, also named Anna, set out to memorialize the life work of her mother.
She began her campaign by handing out 500 carnations one Sunday to all the mothers in attendance at the church her mother had been a Sunday School teacher in.
Anna continued her objective by lobbying many politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt hoping they would support her campaign for a day dedicated to mothers..

Eventually The House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on the second Sunday in May each year in honor of the nations mothers.

Finally on May 8, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as "Mother's Day".

"Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said Joint Resolution, do hereby direct the government officials to display the United States flag on all government buildings and do invite the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

That was the first official Mother's Day and the tradition carries on to this day.


Mother's Day is May 10th.
Remember Mom with flowers

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