How the Tradition to Send Flowers and Gifts For Mother's Day Came About

With appreciative children who send flowers, takeDay was also being celebrated in Philadelphia. Anna
mom to brunch, or write a nice greeting card,lobbied prominent businessmen and politicians
moms are sure to "feel the love" the secondincluding Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support
Sunday of May. Mother's Day has become one ofher campaign to create a special day to honor
busiest days of the year for businesses andmothers.
cynics might believe the flower and giftAt one of the first services organized to
companies conjured up the holiday. Few people,celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in
however, know the true roots of the celebration.West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's
The earliest festivals for mothers trace back tofavorite flowers, carnations. The white carnation
the ancient Greeks who annually paid tribute towas originally worn to symbolize a mother who
Rhea, the mother of many deities, as well as tohas passed away and a red carnation for one
the Romans who paid tribute to their Greatwho is living. However, many other flowers are
Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians honored Mary,now accepted as being significant on Mother's
mother of Christ, on the fourth Sunday of Lent.Day. In 1912, the Mother's Day International
In England this holiday was expanded to include allAssociation was incorporated for the purpose of
mothers and was named Mothering Sunday. Sincepromoting the day and its observance. By 1911,
it was believed that the Mother Church was aMother's Day was celebrated in almost every
spiritual power that gave life and protected fromstate in the nation. In 1913, the House of
harm it was customary for people to bring giftsRepresentatives passed a resolution calling for
to the church. In Europe during the middle Ages,government officials to wear flowers on Mother's
the fourth Sunday in lent became known asDay.
mothering Sunday. Most poor folk were servantsFinally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed
who were allowed to return home on the fourtha bill recognizing Mother's Day as a national holiday
Sunday in Lent, and often brought small gifts,with the following pronouncement: "Now,
flowers, or a "mothering cake" also known asTherefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the
Simnel Cake.United States of America, by virtue of the
In the United States, Mother's Day started nearlyauthority vested in me by the said Joint
150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an AppalachianResolution, do hereby direct the government
homemaker, organized a day to raise awarenessofficials to display the United States flag on all
of poor health conditions in her community, agovernment buildings and do invite the people of
cause she believed would be best advocated bythe United States to display the flag at their
mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day."homes or other suitable places on the second
Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a BostonSunday in May as a public expression of our love
poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyricsand reverence for the mothers of our country."
to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized aInitially, Mother's Day was observed by attending
day for mothers to rally for peace, believing theychurch, children writing letters to their mothers,
bore the loss of human life more harshly thanand eventually, by sending cards, gifts, and
others. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother'sflowers. Believing that the day's sentiment was
Day meetings in Boston, Massachusetts everbeing sacrificed at the expense of greed and
year.profit, Anna Jarvis became enraged and even filed
In 1907 Anna Jarvis's daughter, also named Anna,a lawsuit to stop a Mother's Day festival in 1923.
began a campaign in her church in West Virginia toShe was arrested for disturbing the peace at a
memorialize the life work of her mother byconvention selling flowers for a war mother's
commemorating the anniversary of her mother'sgroup. Before her death in a sanatorium in 1948,
death, which happened to be on the 2nd SundayJarvis is said to have confessed that she was
of May that year. By the following year, Mother'ssorry for even starting the mother's day tradition.