Mother's Day

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

The history of Mother's Day is centuries old and the earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 1600's

A woman's First Mothers Day evokes mixed feelings of joy and pride. It is the time for the new mother to celebrate first mother’s day. She must relish the joys of holding her baby, to feel her own heartbeat inside it and should take pride in the fact that she is the 'mother' of that adorable little child. On the special day of the new mother, child's father and other close relatives and friends must come forward to hold celebrations and make the mother feel important and happy.

The roots of Mother's Day history can also be traced in UK where a Mothering Sunday was celebrated much before the festival saw the light of the day in US. However, the celebration of the festival as it is seen today is a recent phenomenon and not even a hundred years old.

The first suggestion for a day set aside to honor Mothers was made by Julia Ward Howe. Julia was born in 1819 in New York to a prominent family. She was an American writer, lecturer, and reformer. She was known as one of the most famous women of her time. She wrote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", which was inspired when she visited military camps in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War in 1861. It became the major war song of the Union forces. Julia became interested in the women's movement. She became the first president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association.

The modern Mother's Day as celebrated in the US holiday was created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, as a day to honor mothers and motherhood, especially within the context of families, and family relationships. Anna Jarvis, daughter of Anna Reeves Jarvis, who had moved from Grafton, West Virginia, to Philadelphia, in 1890, was the power behind the official establishment of Mother's Day

Three years after Frank Hering of Indiana launched his campaign for observance of Mother's Day in 1904, Anna Jarvis began a campaign to a nationwide observance of Mother's Day. She chose the second Sunday in May. She also began the custom of wearing the carnation as an outward display of affection to honor the day.

Jarvis' own Mother was honored on the first service at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908. Later, at the general assembly in 1912, a delegate from Andrews Church introduced a resolution recognizing Jarvis as the founder of Mother's Day, and suggested that Mother's Day be observed on the second Sunday in May.

President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution in Congress on May 9, 1914, recommending that the federal government observe Mother's day. The next year, the president was authorized to proclaim an annual holiday. The second Sunday in May has been set-aside in honor of motherhood. A woman's First Mothers Day evokes mixed feelings of joy and pride. It is the time for the new mother to celebrate first mother’s day. She must relish the joys of holding her baby, to feel her own heartbeat inside it and should take pride in the fact that she is the 'mother' of that adorable little child. On the special day of the new mother, child's father and other close relatives and friends must come forward to hold celebrations and make the mother feel important and happy.

May 8th celebrate the occasion with a gift from Jewel of The Isle, a gift that will last forever as a memorial to the value of wonderful women and mother. The carnation may wither and be discarded, but the precious jewelry will be past on for generations as a lasting memory. http://www.jeweloftheisle.com