Ever wonder why the month of May is set aside to celebrate Mother’s Day? After a little research, my questions were answered.
Contrary to popular belief, Mother’s Day was not conceived in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mother’s date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.
In the United States, Mother’s Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it “Mother’s Work Day.”
Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, the author of the lyrics to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.
In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. She remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers.”
In 1908, Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen and politicians to support her campaign to create a special day for mothers. Finally, in 1914 Anna’s hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday.
At first, people observed Mother’s Day by attending church, writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents and flowers. Anna Jarvis became enraged. She believed that the day’s sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. She filed a lawsuit in 1923 to stop a Mother’s Day festival, and was arrested for disturbing the peace.
Despite Jarvis’s misgivings, Mother’s Day has flourished in the United States. In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out and telephone lines record their highest traffic.
For more information, reservations and availability, please call us at 661-259-MEAL. Check out our website at www.savoringthymechef.com for pricing and more details.