The History of Mother´s Day

Yesterday, I was surfing on the net and I found an article about how the celebration of mother’s day began, this article was written by the historian Katharine Antolini of Virginia Wesleyan College.

“…The idea dates back to the 1850s when women in West Virginia organized into Mother’s Day work clubs that worked to reduce infant mortality and improve sanitary conditions for mothers and families. During the Civil War, these groups also cared for wounded soldiers from both sides.

After the war ended in 1865, women planned Mother’s Friendship Day picnics in an effort to bring Union and Confederate loyalists together, urging them to promote peace. “Battle Hymn of the Republic” writer Julia Ward Howe started a “Mother’s Peace Day" around this time, which encouraged mothers to support antiwar efforts on behalf of their sons´ wellbeing.

Many of the Mother's Day work club events were organized by Ann Jarvis who lost nine of her 13 children before they reached adulthood. After her death, her daughter Anna , held the first Mother’s Day observances in 1908 to honor her. Cities across the country adopted the trend, and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson named the second Sunday in May a national holiday.

Jarvis fought for full credit for founding Mother’s Day, a battle that consumed much of her time and money and eventually left her poor, blind, and living in a sanitarium at the end of her life. She died in 1948 at 84 years old. This woman, who died penniless in a sanitarium in a state of dementia, was a woman who could have profited from Mother's Day if she wanted to…”