| -> | | | | Mother's Day became a driving force in the United |
| Mother's Day is not merely a holiday in the United | | | | States, led by Mrs. Juliet Calhoun Blakely. Mrs. |
| States. Almost everywhere across the world, | | | | Blakely was attending services at the Methodist |
| mothers have been honored from time | | | | Episcopal Church in Albion, Michigan when the |
| immemorial as nourishers of mankind. Earliest rites | | | | pastor, the Reverend Myron Daughterty, in |
| in Greece revered Rhea, mother of all Grecian | | | | mid-sermon, had a psychological "meltdown" and |
| deities; the Romans looked to Cybele, mother of | | | | quickly left the pulpit with no explanation. It soon |
| the Roman gods. The early Christian Church | | | | became known he was so distraught because his |
| worshipped the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. | | | | son and two other alcohol abstainees were |
| England had its own version of the holiday, calling | | | | bamboozled (no pun intended) by an |
| it "Mothering Day." All citizens, especially the | | | | anti-temperance gang who had forced them to |
| working poor domestics who toiled from morning | | | | spend the entire night in a saloon, where they had |
| to night at the fine manors belonging to the | | | | become drunk for all to see. Mrs. Blakely stepped |
| wealthy aristocrats, observed this day. Pity was | | | | up to the pulpit and completed his sermon on |
| taken upon the servants and they were urged to | | | | temperance and peace, calling for all mothers to |
| visit their own mothers living at points far away. | | | | join her. |
| On this holiday, no matter what the social or | | | | It was not until 1907 that Mother's Day was again |
| economic status was, everyone came forth to | | | | observed, led by Miss Anna Jarvis, daughter of |
| honor motherhood. | | | | the 19th-century Appalachian advocate for peace. |
| Mother's Day, in its earliest beginnings, was an | | | | At this memorial service, Miss Anna gave out 500 |
| outgrowth of a social reform movement led by | | | | white carnations to the mothers in the area. |
| Mrs. Anna Jarvis, who lived in the Appalachians. | | | | Services to honor this day were now being |
| She ardently attempted, around 1850, to | | | | observed each year and hence, Mother's Day was |
| introduce to her neighbors the need for better | | | | a recognized holiday. |
| health and sanitary conditions in the region. She | | | | In 1910, the governor of West Virginia granted |
| felt mothers would be the most nourishing so she | | | | the day as an official celebration and on May 14, |
| called the observance "Mother's Working Day." | | | | 1914, President Woodrow Wilson put Mother's |
| Another theory proposed that she was | | | | Day into law as an officially recognized holiday. |
| instrumental in imploring the authorities for more | | | | Sales of flowers and candy for Mother's Day |
| hygienic surroundings for both sides of the Civil | | | | were so inflated that the holiday soon became a |
| War. | | | | victim of commercialism. Miss Jarvis was so |
| By 1872, due to the efforts of Julia Ward Howe, | | | | disgusted she attempted to sue the federal |
| the wheels of change were set in motion to | | | | government over the sales. Disillusioned by the |
| encourage peace throughout the United States. | | | | holiday she had created, she withdrew unto |
| For the next few years, Miss Howe arranged | | | | herself, dying alone in a sanatorium in 1948. |
| Mother's Day observances in Boston each year. | | | | In the 21st century, flowers and candy are still |
| However, on the second Sunday of May, 1877, | | | | the top sellers. |