The History of Mother’s Day

[Engr.Aftab]

The History of Mother’s Day


All across the world, more than 46 countries honor mothers with a special day, but not all nations celebrate on the same day. We honor mothers with cards, candy, flowers and dinner out. But have you ever considered how this became a legal holiday in the United States?

Mother’s day was first suggested in the United States by Julia Ward Howe, writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. She suggested that this day be dedicated to peace. Miss Howe organized Mother’s Day meetings in Boston every year.

In 1877, Mrs. Juliet Calhoun Blakely inadvertently set Mother’s Day in motion. On Sunday, May 11, 1877, which was Mrs. Blakely’s birthday, the pastor of her
Methodist Episcopal Church left the pulpit abruptly, distraught over the behavior of his son. Mrs. Blakely stepped to the pulpit to take over the remainder of the service and called for other mothers to join her.

Mrs. Blakely’s two sons were so touched by her gesture that they vowed to return to their hometown of Albion, Mich., every year to mark their mother’s birthday and to pay tribute to her. In addition, the two brothers urged business associates and those they met while traveling as salesman to honor their mothers on the second Sunday of May. They also urged the Methodist Episcopal Church in Albion to set aside the second Sunday of each May to honor all mothers, especially their own.

While there were local celebrations honoring mothers in the late 1800’s, the recognition of Mother's Day as a U.S. national holiday was largely due to the efforts of Anna Jarvis. Anna’s mother, Mrs. Anna M. Jarvis, had been instrumental in developing “Mothers Friendship Day” which was part of the healing process of the Civil War. In honor of her mother, Miss Jarvis wanted to set aside a day to honor all mothers, living and dead.

In 1907, Miss Anna began a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day. She persuaded her mother’s church in Grafton, W.Va., to celebrate Mother’s day on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, the second Sunday of May. By the next year, Mother’s Day was also celebrated in her own city of Philadelphia.
Miss Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, evangelists, businessmen, and politicians in their crusade to establish a national Mother’s Day.
This campaign was a success. By 1911, Mother’s Day was celebrated in almost every state in the Union. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made the official announcement proclaiming Mother’s Day as a national holiday to be held each year on the second Sunday of May.

The one-woman crusade of Anna Jarvis is often overlooked in history books because women during the early 1900s were engaged in so many other reform efforts, but it is likely that these other reforms helped pave the way for Anna Jarvis to succeed in her campaign for Mother’s Day.

[Engr.Aftab]

MAAAN TUJHAY SALAM

MAAAN AJ KAY DIN MEIN AP SAY DUA KI BEEKH MANGTA HON .........MAAAN MUJAY DUA KERNA.................MERY TARAF SAY POORI DUNIA KI MOTHERS KO PAON PAY HATH........POORI DUNIA KI MOTHERS KO SALAM

[Engr.Aftab]

To some love is just a word
To me it's a feeling A feeling
I get everytime I look into your eyes
A feeling I get when I realize you're my mom
A mom who loves, shares, A mom who inspires
Unconditionally
What's that?
That's love
A mothers love, but only you would know
And me
You returned that love time and time again
Possibly to much, nevertheless you did
Thank-you
Thank-you for being there when I needed you most
For being my rock when I should have been yours
Thank-you for believing in me, even when I doubted myself
For being the one person I could trust
No matter what, no matter where
But most of all thank-you for being you-my mom
A mom I am so proud to claim
I love you
Now and forever

[Engr.Aftab]

I Love You Mother

You are so special and kind
And I love you so
You helped to build my mind
And I want you to know.
The thought of you by me
Just makes me smile.
We are so close
Forever and not just a while.
I appreciate you mother
And I love all your style

[Engr.Aftab]

History of Mothers Day
Julia Ward Howe in 1872 and Anna Jarvis in 1907 were the best known pioneers who took up the cause of Mother's Day and it was first observed in Philadelphia in 1907. However America only picked it up as the day to honor motherhood at the national level in 1914, setting its date on the second Sunday of May every year. President of America proclaimed it to be a holiday. There are celebrations in the families and the churches in the honor of mothers and grandmothers on this day. Some people even wear carnations on Mother's Day, where a colored carnation denotes that means that one's mother is alive while a white carnation denotes that one's mother is no more. It is said that Mother's Day can be traced back to England where people used honor their mother on Mothering Sunday that came in mid-Lent. Similar celebrations could be traced in Yugoslavia and other nations.

Even before Anna M. Jarvice of Grafton, West Virginia who is credited to be the founder of Mother's Day, several people had been trying to propagate such a day in the honor of mothers and motherhood. Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion in the United States in 1872 and held an annual Mother's Day meeting in Boston for several years on 2nd of June. Mary Towles Sasseen of Kentucky conducted Mother's Day celebrations since 1887 while Frank E. Hering of South Bend launched a campaign for the purpose in 1904. Anna Jarvis started a campaign for a nationwide observance of Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May and introduced the custom of wearing a carnation in the honor of her mother. Mother's Day received national recognition on May 9, 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution of Congress recommending observance of Mother's Day.

Next year, President Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day as an annual national observance.



Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870
Julia Ward Howe


The first person to fight for an official Mother's Day celebration in the United States was Julia Ward Howe. You may be more familiar with her name as the writer who wrote the words to the Civil War song,

The Battle Hymn of the Republic:


"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on."



The modern commercialized celebration of gifts, flowers and candy bears little resemblance to Howe's original idea. Here is the Proclamation that explains, in her own powerful words, the goals of the original Mother's Day in the United States...

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.


Wouldn't it be wonderful if on some distant Mother's Day, the wishes of Julia Ward Howe could be fulfilled and the human race could celebrate a day when, all over the world, no mother would have to mourn the death of her child lost in war or terrorist attacks...

To all the mother's whose children are fighting in wars - and to mother's whose children are growing up with wars raging around them or with terrorism threatening their safety... Wishes of strength, peace and hope for this Mother's Day...

[Engr.Aftab]

conflicting accounts of the history of Mother’s Day


The United States and Canada celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. Over forty-six countries around the globe also recognize Mother's Day. England for instance, celebrates it on the fourth Sunday of Lent. International Mother’s Day is always celebrated on May 11. The U.S. even sets aside the fourth Sunday in October for Mother-in-Law Day.


The First Mother's Day

There are conflicting accounts of the history of Mother’s Day. One account says that Juliet Calhoun Blakeley initiated the first known Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan. On May 11, 1877, the local pastor's son was found drunk in the street. That Sunday, May 13 (Juliet’s birthday), the pastor was too upset to lead the service. Juliet took the pulpit and asked other mothers to join her.

Juliet’s sons were so moved by their mother’s gesture that they returned home every year to pay tribute to her, and urged others to honor their mothers on the same date. Because of the brothers' actions, the Methodist Church in Albion followed suit and set aside the second Sunday in May to honor all mothers.

Most sources give the credit for Mother’s Day to Anna M. Jarvis. It is generally agreed that the first Mother’s Day celebration took place in 1907, in a tiny church in West Virginia when Anna Jarvis arranged a special service to pay tribute to her mother. Seven years later, President Wilson declared Mother’s Day a national holiday.

[Engr.Aftab]

A mother's love

A mother's love determines how
We love ourselves and others.
There is no sky we'll ever see
Not lit by that first love.

Stripped of love, the universe
Would drive us mad with pain;
But we are born into a world
That greets our cries with joy.

How much I owe you for the kiss
That told me who I was!
The greatest gift--a love of life--
Lay laughing in your eyes.

Because of you my world still has
The soft grace of your smile;
And every wind of fortune bears
The scent of your caress.

[Engr.Aftab]

Mother of my loved one, hear my love
On this, a day when such sweet words are due.
Take to heart the heartfelt praise that you
Have long bestowed but wanted little of.
Even as waves hunger for the shore,
Resting their long yearnings on the sand,
So I have found in you a mother, and
Delighted in the sunlight at your door.
An accident of love brought us together,
Yet though I chose not, I would choose no other

[Engr.Aftab]

You are my mother and my friend,
Which is unusual.
Somehow our characters must blend:
Your wisdom and my will.

I turn, and you are there for me;
I speak, you understand.
I feel cared for, but also free;
You lead but don't command.

I'm fortunate that I was born
To someone just like you;
I love you, not just as my mom,
But for what you are and do.

[Engr.Aftab]

To the mothers of children who never were children,
Who died in the womb unnamed and unknown:
You also were mothers, albeit but briefly,
And loved with the love given mothers alone.
Yours was the stirring of life within life,
The being of being all one being knew,
The love of a love that knew only your love,
The world to a world that knew no world but you.

Yours the unspeakable pleasure of giving
Your substance to nurture the creature within;
Yours the inscrutable song of creation,
Bringing to being the dust of the wind.

Death is the end, but never the meaning;
Life is a gift, no matter how long.
You, too, are mothers, the bearers of beauty,
The icons of love to whom this day belongs