Mother's Day Has Ancient Roots

May 13 is Mother's Day. Many believe this was a holiday invented by greeting card companies, but the lineage of this day can be traced back to ancient Greece.

Ancient Greeks worshipped mother goddesses Cybele and Rhea during the spring. The Romans celebrated Matronalia, in March. Mothers were given gifts as part of the celebrations.

The modern incarnation of this holiday started during the American Civil war. Social activist Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870, calling for pacifism and social responsibility. The proclamation, now included in the Unitarian Universalist hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, was an early call to celebrate a day for mothers.

Excerpt: Mother's Day Proclamation
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Ward Howe was echoing the 1850s sentiments of Ann Jarvis, a West Virginia homemaker. To improve sanitation, Jarvis organized Mothers' Work Days. Throughout the Civil War she worked with others to improve conditions for both sides in the conflict. After the war she worked to reconcile families from both sides of the war. After her death her daughter Anna Jarvis began a campaign to have a memorial day for mothers recognized.

The first Mother's Day was celebrated on May 10, 1908 in Grafton, West Virginia, in the church where Ann Jarvis taught Sunday school. Now, Grafton is the location of the International Mother's Day Shrine. The new holiday spread to 45 states. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day.

Mother's Day is one of the most successful commercial holidays in the United States. The National Restaurant Association states that Mother's Day is the most popular day to eat out. Flowers and cards are also popular gifts. Telephone networks are reportedly their busiest on Mother's Day.