Mother's Day Origins

[Enlarge Photo]

Mothers are the unsung heroes of the world. Every day they sacrifice their time and devote their love to the children they brought into the world.

What mother doesn't hope to be celebrated and pampered, if just for a bit, by her children in recognition for all that she had done for them? That is why every year on the second Sunday of May children pay hommage to their moms on Mother's Day.

Mother's Day hasn't always been a standard spring holiday. In fact, mothers went officially uncelebrated for years and years. It wasn't until the 20th century that an official holiday was established to honor mothers, grandmothers and the other special women in people's lives.

Anna Jarvis was a woman who made great strides toward establishing a national holiday for mothers. Jarvis held annual gatherings called "Mother's Friendship Day" with an objective to heal the pain of the victims and those affected by the Civil War. After her own mother died in 1905, Jarvis decided a national celebration of mothers was in order, and began to campaign for such a holiday.

Jarvis began by soliciting the pastor at the church where her mother had taught Sunday School classes for a special commemorative mass. The church obliged, and the first Mother's Day celebration took place on May 10, 1908 at Andrew's Methodist Church. Later that day, Jarvis celebrated Mother's Day again with her brother at her home in Philadelphia.

The Mother's Day idea eventually caught on, and President Woodrow Wilson made it official in 1914 that the second Sunday in May would be celebrated as Mother's Day annually.

Since then families have gathered annually together to give thanks to the special women who have helped shape their lives.