Origins Go Back to Just after the American Civil War
The second Sunday in May is just around the corner and, in the United States, that means one thing—it’s time to pay honor and tribute to mothers and motherhood. Just how long have we been doing that? How did Mother’s Day originate? Is it celebrated around the world or just in the United States?
The Origins of Mother’s Day
Though the date was not officially placed on the national calendar until the early 20th century, the seeds of Mother’s Day were planted before the American Civil War, in 1858, when Ann Reeves Jarvis, a peace activist, created organizations called Mother’s Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. The first Mother’s Day Work Clubs were established in small towns in West Virginia, including Jarvis’ hometown of Philippi, as well a Grafton, Pruntytown, Fetterman and Webster. The clubs worked to provide education and assistance to families in Appalachia, in an effort to combat disease and infant mortality.
The movement toward an official Mother’s Day took another step forward just five years after the truce at Appomattox, in 1870, when famed suffragette and activist Julia Ward Howe made what was called at the time an “appeal to womanhood throughout the world.” Howe was a pacifist who was deeply troubled by what she considered the unnecessary loss of life in the American Civil War, as well as in other conflicts around the world. Interestingly, Howe is also credited with writing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, considered by many to be a stirring military piece.
Her appeal, which was subsequently renamed the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” implored women (and particularly mothers) of all nations and nationalities to join together to promote “amicable settlement of international questions.” Howe and Jarvis became acquainted and spent the rest of their lives campaigning for a national Mother’s Day, without success.
Two years after Ann Jarvis died, in 1905, her daughter Anna grabbed the baton and mounted a national campaign for a Mother’s day holiday. In 1907, she held the first Mother’s Day service at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, in Grafton, West Virginia. She succeeded in having a bill introduced in Congress in 1908, but the proposed law was not adopted. However, just six years later, President Woodrow Wilson signed a presidential proclamation officially designating the second Sunday in May as a national holiday to honor all mothers.
Mother’s Day is now celebrated across the nation and in most countries around the world, though the date is not always the same.
