Mother's Day

Significance of Mother's Day 

Mother's Day is a holiday celebrated annually on the second Sunday of May. It is a day that commemorates motherhood and appreciates all mothers and mother-figures (including grandmothers, great-grandmothers, stepmothers, and foster mothers) as well as their contribution to society.
 

History of Mother's Day

The History of Mother's Day dates back to the 19th century, when women's peace groups in United States of America often tried to establish holidays and regular activities in favour of peace and against war. A common regular activity was the meeting of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died in the American Civil War.

In 1868, Ann Jarvis, created a committee to establish a "Mother's Friendship Day" in order to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War. There were several limited observances in the 1870s and the 1880s but none achieved recognition beyond that. At the time, Protestant schools in the United States already held many celebrations and In New York City, Julia Ward Howe led an anti-war observance (Mother's Day for Peace) on June 2, 1872 which was accompanied by a holiday nowadays known as Mother's Day Proclamation.

Several years later a Mother's Day observance on May 13, 1877 was held in Albion, Michigan over a dispute related to the temperance movement which celebrates Juliet Calhoun Blakeley who stepped up to complete the sermon of the distraught Rev. Myron Daughterty and because of her actions, her sons paid tribute to her each year and urged others to honour their mothers.

In the early 1880s, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Albion set aside the second Sunday in May to recognize the special contributions of mothers. In its present form, Mother's Day was established by Anna Jarvis with the help of John Wanamaker following the death of her mother, Ann Jarvis, on May 9, 1905. The official service was on May 10, 1908, and the next year the day was reported to be widely celebrated in New York.

Jarvis then campaigned to establish Mother's Day as a United States national holiday and then later as an international holiday. The holiday was declared officially by the state of West Virginia in 1910, and the rest of the states followed quickly.