Celebrations
of our dear mothers go back in time to the ancient Greek celebrations of Rhea,
the mother of the gods. During festivals, offerings of honey cakes, fine drinks,
and flowers were made at dawn in honour of Rhea.
The Roman
mother of gods, Cybele or Magna Mater (Great Mother), was also celebrated. The “Festival
of Hilaria,” held on March 25, was a day free of work. The festival heralded a
time of joy and merriment, and gifts were brought to the Great Mother’s temple
in her honour.
Moving
closer to our present-day celebration of mothers, in the 1600s, England
celebrated “Mothering Sunday” on the fourth Sunday of Lent (the 40 days leading
up to Easter). On this day, England’s servants for the wealthy, who often lived
far from their families, were given the day off to return home to spend the day
with their mother. Often, a special cake called a “mothering cake” was baked to
take home for the occasion.
The more
modern roots of Mother’s Day began in the United States with the social justice
work of Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910), a pacifist, suffragist, and author who
rallied in Boston, MA, for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” on June 2. Intended for
mothers to advocate against the waste of human life caused by war, the day
never caught on.
It is Anna
Jarvis and her mother, Mrs. Ann Marie Jarvis, who are credited with the
observance of Mother’s Day in its present form. Mrs. Jarvis (or “Mother
Jarvis”) organized many social action brigades in West Virginia in the 1850s.
Motivated by the loss of eight children under the age of seven, Mother Jarvis
began “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to provide medicine and nursing care for poor,
sick, and vulnerable people. During the Civil War, these clubs joined together to
nurse soldiers wounded in both sides of the war. After the Civil War, in 1868, Mother
Jarvis organized a “Mother’s Friendship Day” to encourage families from both
sides to come together in friendship and goodwill to reconcile the polarization
caused by war.
After her
mother’s death, Anna Jarvis wanted to honour her mother’s service to her
community, and her memory of her mother’s wish for a special day to recognize mothers
drove her to persuade her church in Grafton, West Virginia, to hold a day to
honour mothers on the anniversary of her own mother’s death, the second Sunday
of May. Anna went on to incorporate the Mother’s Day International Association and
worked to persuade other countries to adopt Mother’s Day, which is now observed
in over 140 countries worldwide.
Unfortunately,
things took a bitter turn for Anna, who became dismayed by the
commercialization of Mother’s Day, as greeting card, confectionary, and floral
industries capitalized greatly on the day. She was so outraged by this
profiteering that she filed a lawsuit against a 1923 Mother’s Day festival and
was arrested for disturbing the peace at a war mothers’ convention where
carnations were being sold for profit.
Anna Jarvis
died in 1948 at the age of 84, and despite never having had children herself,
she – and her mother – have gifted the world with Mother’s Day. Rooted in
compassion, peace, social justice, and reconciliation, this day, whether or not
our mother is still here with us, is a day for us to express our love and
gratitude for all our mother has done for us, for who they are, and for how
they shaped our being.
- Lang
Pioneer Village Museum, 2020
