THE HISTORY OF MOTHER’S DAY

The origin of Mother's Day goes back to the era of the ancient Greek and Romans.  The Greeks dedicated the spring festival to Rhea, wife of Cronus, and mother of many deities in Greek mythology.

The Mother’s Day we celebrate today finds it roots in the UK where a “Mothering Sunday” was celebrated much before the festival saw the light of the day in the USA.  In the 1600s, Mother’s Day was celebrated in England annually on the fourth Sunday of Lent to honor mothers.  After a prayer service in church to honor the Virgin Mary, children brought gifts and flowers to pay tribute to their own mothers.

The celebration today is a recent phenomenon less than a hundred years old and is the direct result of the hard work of two pioneering women of their times: Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis.  Today, Mothers Day is celebrated across 46 countries (on different dates). 

Anna Jarvis quit working and devoted herself full time to the creation of Mother's Day, endlessly petitioning state governments, business leaders, women groups, churches and other institutions and organizations.  She finally convinced the World's Sunday School Association to back her, a key influence over state legislators and congress.  In 1912 West Virginia became the first state to officially recognize Mother's Day, and in 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed it into national observance, declaring the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.