Long before florists and card companies took center stage on Mother’s Day, the holiday wasn’t about gift giving or really even about moms. In fact, according to the history of Mother’s Day, the holiday’s founder actively fought to have it stricken from the U.S. calendar forever after consumerism took over.
While its roots can be found in ancient Greek and Roman times, the origins of Mother’s Day as it’s known today in the U.S. date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries and stemmed from some pretty dark times, according to History. Here are five surprising truths that you may not know about the holiday.
And despite it’s Dark Beginnings it’s now a time to honor our Mothers and those that have filled in as Mothers when ours were absent or chose to be absent. My dedication goes out to all my friends and family: Specifically:
Crystal,Luci,Melanie,Vida,Sheila, Gina,Vivian,Patricia,Monique, and Many many others.
And remember you don’t have to biologically mother a child to be a great Mother. Adoptive Mothers are held in the highest regard as well. and…….
All those people with FURBABIES you are honored and appreciated for your great LOVE,PATIENCE,and care that you give animals. I truly admire those who do rescue work, that is the most heart wrenching job, but you do it and the animals that survive turn out to be the most loving, trusting animals, despite the paradox that might seem.
My two guys and one girl who I’m a MOTHER too are: DOUGLAS BREGG II who I adore and am soooo proud of while he might be 33 (or will be), He will always be like my young son only in better hands now (LYNN) 🙂 My other two are Ringo and Ms. Kitty the two that keep me the busiest , you know with spoiling them, letting them manipulate you, feeling guilt all out of the premise of LOVE 🙂 🙂
This is my son Doug, below is my beloved guy Bandit RIP. And on the right Ringo (13) and “a lil CHUNKY” and Ms. Kitty (9 months old).
ON WITH THE ARTICLE
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!
1. Mother’s Day probably started as a way for mourning women to honor fallen soldiers.“Mother’s Friendship Day” was organized in 1868 to allow mothers of Union and Confederate soldiers to get together.
2. The earliest iterations of Mother’s Day in the U.S. were organized for several reasons, but celebrating mothers wasn’t among them. U.S. women’s groups in the late 1800s came together in West Virginia to tackle everything from infant mortality to disease and milk contamination. In 1870, a composer by the name of Julia Ward Howe issued a “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” urging women to become politically active and to promote peace following the U.S. Civil War, according to National Geographic.
3. The official holiday’s founder Anna Jarvis boycotted the holiday. Jarvis, a native of West Virginia, organized the first Mother’s Day celebration at a church in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908 in memory of her own mother, who died three years earlier. She successfully campaigned to have the day adopted nationally, but by the time of her death in 1948, Jarvis had spent most of her personal wealth fighting the holiday she helped conceive. She apparently found the commercialization of Mother’s Day deplorable and sued groups that used the name “Mother’s Day” name to promote consumerism. She even lobbied the government to remove it from the U.S.’ official calendar.
4. Jarvis never married and was childless. In many ways, Jarvis’ unwavering devotion to preserving what she thought was the true origin of the holiday was more about her ego than anything else. “Everything she signed was Anna Jarvis, Founder of Mother’s Day. It was who she was,” historian Katharine Antolini, author of “Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother’s Day,” told National Geographic.
5. The carnation was the original Mother’s Day flower. Some groups sold carnations every year to fundraise for their causes, something Jarvis vehemently opposed.
Lori's Song 