It’s Mother’s Day. Do you know how we came to celebrate this treasured day to honour mom?
Anna M. Jarvis is the founder of Mother’s Day, who successfully campaigned to hold the first official Mother’s Day celebration. It was a tribute to her mother, Julia Ward Howe, who conceived the Mother’s Day Proclamation back in 1870. It is a tradition observed on different days in different countries in various ways.
“Since the day I was born, I have loved you so much…” were the opening words I penned on a handmade Mother’s Day card back in the 3rd grade. Those were the only words I remember, as our teacher was a merciless editor, and I think those were the only original words I was allowed to keep in the final version that was sent home to my Mother.
I am sure Mom still has the card tucked away somewhere, along with the gold-painted brooch made from an eyeglass lens that accompanied the card. Memories of Mother’s Day stay with us, as children and then as we grow into mothers ourselves.
Mother’s Day Traditions
While you are enjoying tea or time together you can ponder the history and traditions of Mother’s Day.
The celebration of motherhood can be traced back to the Egyptians, but we will fast-forward to the present. History.com is an excellent website for Jeopardy fans in the crowd, with a history of Mother’s Day.
In North America, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Currently, there are close to 70 countries that officially celebrate Mother’s Day, but at different times of the year and in different ways.
Some countries, like France in 1918, influenced by American troops, simply imported US secular traditions. Others, including countries whose tradition stems from the English Mothering Day, maintain traditions quite different from those of the United States. Still, others have ignored or abandoned the more religious and commercial notions of Mother’s Day, choosing instead to focus on women’s issues and women’s rights by celebrating International Women’s Day.
Religious Significance
For some countries, there is religious significance to the day.
- United Kingdom: Mothering Day falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Its origins in early Christianity to honour the Mother Church where Christians were baptized.
- Ethiopia: the holiday is tied to seasons and agriculture, and in Yugoslavia, it leads up to Christmas, commemorating the Motherhood of Christ.
The Gilded Age Roots: Ann Reeves Jarvis and the Peace Movement
The real story of Mother’s Day starts earlier than most people realize. It begins in the Gilded Age with Ann Reeves Jarvis, Anna M. Jarvis’s mother.
Ann Reeves Jarvis lived a life marked by both tragedy and purpose. Of her 11 to 14 children, only four survived to adulthood. In 1862 alone, at least four of her children died from measles. One of her surviving daughters described their mother’s life as one of “care, anxiety, illness, sorrow and self-sacrifice.” By any measure, it was a hard life.
But Ann Reeves Jarvis did not sit with her grief. She acted.
Beginning in 1858, she organized Mothers’ Day Work Clubs in Appalachian communities to fight the epidemics that devastated families like hers. Measles, typhoid, and diphtheria killed children at alarming rates. Her clubs educated families on sanitation, inspected milk supplies, provided medicine, and quarantined homes. They worked. They saved lives.
Then came the Civil War. The war shifted Ann Reeves Jarvis’s mission, but it did not stop it. She insisted that the women’s groups she organized help both Confederate and Union troops who were sick or wounded. She worked to promote peace and unity after the war ended, believing that mothers could bridge the divide that had torn the nation apart.
In 1868, Ann Reeves Jarvis organized a Mother’s Friendship Day designed to bring families from both sides of the war together and restore a sense of community. Town officials begged her to cancel. Veterans were expected to arrive, some armed. The risk was real.
She refused to cancel.
Jarvis stood before the crowd, flanked by two teenage girls dressed in blue and gray. She explained the gathering’s message of forgiveness and unity. More women dressed in blue and gray came forward to link hands with her. They led the crowd in choruses of “Dixie” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Witnesses reported veterans “weeping and shaking hands,” saying, “God bless you, neighbor; let us be friends again.”
This is who Anna M. Jarvis came from. This is the foundation of Mother’s Day: not sentimentality, but action. Not profit, but peace. Not flowers, but healing.
Anna M. Jarvis’s Legacy: One Mother, Not an Industry
Anna M. Jarvis was intentional about the name: Mother’s Day (singular), not Mothers Day. A day to honour “the best mother who ever lived, yours.” Not motherhood in general. Your mother.
Woodrow Wilson declared it a national holiday in 1914, but Anna spent the rest of her life fighting the commercialization of her creation. Florists, greeting card companies, and retailers turned it into a profit machine. She opposed them fiercely. She lost. She died in 1948, blind, poor, and childless. The florists she battled anonymously paid for her final care.
Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea
My favourite tradition for special days with Mom or my girlfriends is Afternoon Tea, and remember it is called Afternoon Tea, not High Tea. It is really easy to do.
Afternoon tea is simply a pot of tea and
- scones – my easy recipe
- tiny sandwiches – easy to make your own
- bite-sized desserts – if you don’t bake, you can make some of mom’s favourites and cut into small pieces.
From cream tea to a full afternoon tea menu, my Guide to Afternoon Tea has plenty of ideas. You can always pack up a box and drop it off on her doorstep.
If Afternoon Tea is not Mom’s thing, I have a number of “Mother’s Day” dish ideas you can make.
