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The Origin of Mother's Day in the U.S.
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The Origin of Mother's Day in the U.S. Mother's Day is celebrated in the U.S. on the second Sunday in May. Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day of the same name. It was brought to the U.S. by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. It's purpose was to be a call to unite women against war. In 1870, Howe wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe was unsuccessful in her effort to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Ward's idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors. Jarvis died in 1905. Her , named Anna Jarvis, then began the crusade to found a memorial day for women. In 1907, Anna Jarvis passed out 500 white carnations to the female members at her mother’s church, St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. The first Mother's Day service was celebrated on 10 May 1908, in the same church, where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Anna selected Sunday because she wanted the day to be commemorated and treated as a Holy Day. The custom caught on spreading eventually to 46 states. The holiday was declared officially beginning with West Virginia in 1912. Then in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war. Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis became a major opponent of what the holiday had become. Mother's Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. Americans spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on gifts such as spa treatments and another $68 million on greeting cards. Mother's Day will generate about 7.8% of the US jewelry industry's annual revenue in 2008. Americans are expected to spend close to $3.51 billion in 2008 on dining out for Mother's Day, with brunch and dinner being the most popular dining out options. Thing don't always turn out like you planned! AKA  |
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Kingcat4U2...I agree wholeheartedly! Thanks for stopping by AKA
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