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Perhaps the origin of Mother's Day goes back to Roman or even prehistoric times. In prehistoric times, there was a spring Pagan festival called Hilaria honoring the mother goddess, Cybele. Later, during the development of Lent, the fourth Sunday was also called Mothering Sunday in recognition of Mother of God or Mary. It became customary to offer small gifts or cakes to their mothers on this day. Again, however, the holiday had roots of religious practice.
In modern day, a woman, Anna Jarvis, introduced the concept of a non-secular celebration of mothers. She, herself, was very devoted to her mother and was concerned about the treatment adult children gave to their elderly mothers. Shortly after her own mother died, she started a large letter writing campaign to institute a celebration of mothers. In response to Jarvis' request, Dr. Howard, a minister in Grafton, West Virginia dedicated a Sunday to mothers and more specifically to Mrs. Jarvis. Mrs. Jarvis' favorite flowers, carnations were supplied by Anna to the parishioners. Also on this May 10, 1908, a church in Philadelphia inaugurated this Mother's Day celebration practice.
Ironically, Jarvis was never a mother herself. After caring for her sick mother and her blind sister, she never married. She also became disenchanted with the commercialism of the holiday. In her later years, she lost all her property, her eyesight, and her health. Friends collectively paid for her fees to a sanitarium where she died a pauper.
The holiday was quickly adopted by other states and countries and in 1914, a resolution was passed in congress establishing the second Sunday in May to be officially recognized as Mother's Day. |
