I have early memories of spending the day in our huge backyard garden with our two little ones running around me as I weeded and planted. This was how we spent many Mother’s Days as a young family.
I wondered about the history of Mother’s Day. Today, it is a celebration honouring motherhood in many countries throughout the world.
Mothers and motherhood have been celebrated since the ancient Greek and Roman times, who held festivals to honour the mother goddesses Cybele and Rhea.
The modern evolution of Mother’s Day was an early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday”. It was once a major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe. This celebration fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent. It was originally seen as a time when the faithful would return to their ‘mother church’ (their home church) for a special service.
Over time the Mothering Sunday tradition shifted into a more nonreligious holiday. Children would present their mothers with gifts of flowers and other tokens of appreciation. The custom eventually faded in popularity before merging with the American Mother’s Day in the 1930s and 1940s.
The holiday was actually created by Ann Marie Jarvis of West Virginia in 1908. US President, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation in 1914 designating Mother’s Day, a national holiday to honour mothers, to be held on the second Sunday in May. Ann spent the rest of her life trying to get the holiday off the calendar as she was opposed to the commercialization of the day.
Ann organized boycotts of the celebration and encouraged children to honour their mothers through handwritten letters expressing their love and gratitude. At this time, carnations were the popular flowers as a gift for Mother’s Day. Ann angrily protested the selling of carnations by the American War Mothers to raise money. She was arrested for disturbing the peace.
Prior to the US Civil War, Ann helped to start “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly care for their children.
These clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War. In 1869, Ann organized a “Mothers Friendship Day” where mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote harmony. Her Mother’s Day Work Clubs also raised money for medicine and hired help for mothers suffering from tuberculosis.
Ann Marie Jarvis’s daughter, Anna Jarvis, followed in the footsteps of her mother after her death in 1905. A couple of years later, her daughter organized a memorial service for her mother. Every mourner present received a white carnation, which was Ann’s favourite flower.
Anna conceived the idea of Mother’s Day as a way of honouring the sacrifices mothers made for their children.
Suffragettes and abolitionists also become involved in the late 1800s asking mothers to unite in world peace.
Mother’s Day has become very commercialized in today’s world. More phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year. I must admit. I do appreciate the recognition and the story of how it evolved from promoting world peace, unity and improved health care to lovely bouquets of flowers and hugs from the kids!
Lynda Pasacreta is the current president of the Richmond Garden Club. Drop by Richmond Garden Club’s Mother’s Day Plant Sale, Saturday May 11th, 9am to 2pm, South Arm United Church parking lot, Steveston Hwy and No. 3 Road. While picking up some plants for Mom’s garden we will have experts on site to answer any of your gardening questions.
