The earliest known festivals in honor of
mothers were held in the spring in ancient
Greece. They paid tribute to
Rhea, Mother of the Gods. In
Rome the most significant Mother's Day-like festival was dedicated to the worship of
Cybele, another mother goddess. Ceremonies in
her honor began about 250 B.C.
Closer to the modern U.S. observance is England's "Mothering Sunday", or Mid-Lent Sunday, observed on the fourth Sunday in Lent. Some say the ceremonies in honor of Cybele were adopted by the
early church to venerate Mary, Mother of Christ. Others think that "Holy Mother Church" was substituted for mother goddesses, and custom began to dictate that a person visit the church of his/her baptism on this day. Young men and women who were apprentices or servants returned home on Mothering Sunday, bringing to their mothers small gifts like trinkets or a "mothering cake".
In the United States, Julia Ward Howe suggested the idea of Mother's Day in 1872. Howe, who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, saw Mother's Day as being dedicated to peace. But Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia is credited with bringing about the official observance of Mother's Day. Her campaign to establish such a holiday began as a remembrance of her own mother, who died in 1905 and who had, in the late 19th century, tried to establish "Mother's Friendship Days" as a way to heal the scars of the Civil War.
The first Mother's Day observance was a church service honoring Mrs. Anna Reese Jarvis, held at the younger Anna Jarvis's request in Grafton, West Virginia, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1908. Carnations, her mother's favorite flowers, were brought to that first service by Miss Jarvis; particularly white carnations because they represented the sweetness, purity and endurance of mother love. Jarvis was so moved by the service that she began a huge campaign for a formal holiday honoring mothers. In 1910, West Virginia became the first state to recognize Mother's Day. A year later, nearly every state officially marked the day. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed Mother's Day as a national holiday to be held on the second Sunday of May.
But Jarvis' accomplishment soon turned bitter for her. Enraged by the commercialization of the holiday, she
filed a lawsuit to stop a 1923 Mother's Day festival and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a war
mothers' convention where women sold white carnations to raise money. "This is not what I intended," Jarvis said. "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit!" (So it's a good thing she can't see modern Hallmark stores at the beginning of May.)