A Mothers Day history

The more cynical amongst you might think that Mothers Day is something of a ‘Hallmark Holiday’, but the truth is that this special day that honours mothers everywhere dates all the way back to ancient Greece and ancient Rome.

Ancient Romans celebrated with their Matronalia holiday where as well as celebrating their ‘mother god’ Juno, gifts were also given to mothers as a recognition of their loving place within the family. The Ancient Greeks had their own festival, held during mid-March, where Cybele the mother of the Greek gods was celebrated.

Many religions have their own special day set aside to recognise the importance of maternal love, and have celebrated this for centuries. The Christian faith, with Mary the virgin mother holding huge importance, introduced Laetare Sunday, or the 4th Sunday in Lent to honour Mary and the ‘mother church’. This was to become Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom, now often referred to as Mothers Day.

In 1870 Julia Ward Howe issued her famously feminist Mothers Day Proclamation which not only criticised the Franco-Prussian and American Civil War conflicts of the day and stressed the importance of maternal love, but is also cited as being one of the earliest calls to celebrate Mothers Day in the US.

However, in America, it is Anna Jarvis of West Virginia who is credited with creating the Mothers Day holiday. In 1907, Anna held a memorial to her mother who had passed away 2 years previously. From this day on she campaigned to have the work of mothers recognised throughout America, seeking to have a holiday in their honour.

On 8th May, 1914, she succeeded, as President Woodrow Wilson signed a congressional resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mothers Day. By the 1920’s however, Anna and her sister Ellsinore, had become so embittered by the commercialisation of Mothers Day that they spent the rest of their lives campaigning against it.

Mothers Day is now a much-celebrated international holiday, where mothers can look forward to receiving gifts and time off from household chores. As the holiday often falls in spring, flowers, newly in bloom, are among the most popular gifts along with chocolates, jewellery and Mothers Day cards. Mothers Day may well help to boost the profits of flower delivery companies like Interflora and confectionary companies like Cadbury. But to call this traditional celebration of motherhood a ‘Hallmark holiday’ is to miss its significance and longstanding history. Visit the Interflora website to find out more about flower delivery.

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