Mothers' Day

                                                   Happy Mother's Day

Thank you to the ancient Greeks and Romans for starting the idea of Mother's Day.   The festivals for the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele were filled with color and feasting.  The Christians thought this was a good idea, and so they started Mothering Sunday.

It became a major tradition in the United Kingdom and some places in Europe, and it was on the fourth Sunday in Lent.  This was the day the faithful would return to the mother church in the vicinity of their home.  Years later, it became a secular holiday with flowers and gifts.  As time went by, it faded from popularity, and then the holiday arrived in America.

Its beginnings were in the US before the Civil War.  Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start  Mother's Day Work Clubs to teach mothers how to care for their children.  After the Civil War, the name was changed to Mother's Friendship Day, so mothers of  Union soldiers and mothers of Confederate soldiers could reconcile.

There were women who were tired of the men in political control and, in their minds, were prone to get the nations into wars.  During the Civil War, the women managed the farms, worked in the cities, raised their children, paid taxes, and more. After the Civil War, the fourteenth amendment was passed.  It freed African American men and made them citizens. However, the women were ignored. Women's Suffrage began.  

Julia Ward Howe was a prominent leader. She became active in the movement because she was married to an abusive husband, and according to the laws of the time, the children would belong to the father if the wife left the marriage.  She joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who believed women had a human right to equality with men. 

Later Juliet Blakely, Mary Sasseen, and Frank Hering worked to organize Mother's Day for Temperance.  Mr. Hering is called by some as the father of Mother's Day.

Anna Jarvis's mother died in 1905, and Anna wanted to honor her and other mothers and started a national campaign to establish Mother's Day. It became a hit when the John Wanamaker department store in Philadelphia held a service in its auditorium to honor mothers. The retailers saw the profits from selling gifts for this special day.

Mothers were celebrated in 45 states by 1909.

Mother's Day became official in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson established the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

In Thailand, Mother's Day is celebrated in August on the birthday of Queen Sirikit.  In Ethiopia, they celebrate for many days, where they sing songs and eat a large feast as part of Antrosht (the name of their Mother's Day).

Blessed be the hand that prepares a pleasure for a child, for there is no saying when and where it may bloom forth. By Douglas Jerrold

                                                                       My Mother

If I were asked to give a thought which in one word would speak

A unity of brotherhood, sympathy complete,

A hundred happy cheery ways, a mind that knows its own,

Contented midst a throng of folk, yet peaceful when alone,

A heart that sheds its silent glow to brighten many another,

Without a moment of delay, I'd say, "You mean my mother."

Author Unknown 

The things in my life that are worthy

    Were born in my mother's breast,

And breathed into mine by the magic

    Of the love her life expressed.

The years that have brought me to manhood (and womanhood)

    Have taken her far from me;

 But memory keeps me from straying

    Too far from my mother's knee.

  By John H. Styles, Jr. 

The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother. Napoleon

There are teachings in earth and sky and air,

The heavens the glory of God declare;

But louder than voice, beneath, above,

He is heard to speak through a mother's love.

By Emily Taylor

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms and Grandmoms.